Let us consider these two matters, voting and tax paying, separately.
And first of voting.
All the voting that has ever taken place under the Constitution, has
been of such a kind that it not only did not pledge the whole people to
support the Constitution, but it did not even pledge any one of them to
do so, as the following considerations show.
1. In the very nature of things, the act of voting could bind nobody
but the actual voters. But owing to the property qualifications
required, it is probable that, during the first twenty or thirty years
under the Constitution, not more than one-tenth, fifteenth, or perhaps
twentieth of the whole population (black and white, men, women, and
minors) were permitted to vote. Consequently, so far as voting was
concerned, not more than one-tenth, fifteenth, or twentieth of those
then existing, could have incurred any obligation to support the
Constitution.
At the present time, it is probable that not more than one-sixth of the
whole population are permitted to vote. Consequently, so far as voting
is concerned, the other five-sixths can have given no pledge that they
will support the Constitution.
2. Of the one-sixth that are permitted to vote, probably not more than
two-thirds (about one-ninth of the whole population) have usually voted.
Many never vote at all. Many vote only once in two, three, five, or ten
years, in periods of great excitement.
No one, by voting, can be said to pledge himself for any longer period
than that for which he votes. If, for example, I vote for an officer who
is to hold his office for only a year, I cannot be said to have thereby
pledged myself to support the government beyond that term. Therefore, on
the ground of actual voting, it probably cannot be said that more than
one-ninth or one-eighth, of the whole population are usually under any
pledge to support the Constitution.
3. It cannot be said that, by voting, a man pledges himself to support
the Constitution, unless the act of voting be a perfectly voluntary one
on his part. Yet the act of voting cannot properly be called a
voluntary one on the part of any very large number of those who do vote.
It is rather a measure of necessity imposed upon them by others, than
one of their own choice. On this point I repeat what was said in a
former number,[a] viz.:
"In truth, in the case of individuals, their actual voting is
not to be taken as proof of consent, _even for the time being_.
On the contrary, it is to be considered that, without his
consent having even been asked a man finds himself environed by
a government that he cannot resist; a government that forces him
to pay money, render service, and forego the exercise of many of
his natural rights, under peril of weighty punishments. He sees,
too, that other men practice this tyranny over him by the use of
the ballot. He sees further, that, if he will but use the ballot
himself, he has some chance of relieving himself from this
tyranny of others, by subjecting them to his own. In short, he
finds himself, without his consent, so situated that, if he use
the ballot, he may become a master; if he does not use it, he
must become a slave. And he has no other alternative than these
two. In self-defence, he attempts the former. His case is
analogous to that of a man who has been forced into battle,
where he must either kill others, or be killed himself. Because,
to save his own life in battle, a man attempts to take the lives
of his opponents, it is not to be inferred that the battle is
one of his own choosing. Neither in contests with the
ballot--which is a mere substitute for a bullet--because, as his
only chance of self-preservation, a man uses a ballot, is it to
be inferred that the contest is one into which he voluntarily
entered; that he voluntarily set up all his own natural rights,
as a stake against those of others, to be lost or won by the
mere power of numbers. On the contrary, it is to be considered
that, in an exigency into which he had been forced by others,
and in which no other means of self-defence offered, he, as a
matter of necessity, used the only one that was left to him.
"Doubtless the most miserable of men, under the most oppressive
government in the world, if allowed the ballot, would use it, if
they could see any chance of thereby meliorating their
condition. But it would not, therefore, be a legitimate
inference that the government itself, that crushes them, was one
which they had voluntarily set up, or even consented to.
"Therefore, a man's voting under the Constitution of the United
States, is not to be taken as evidence that he ever freely
assented to the Constitution, _even for the time being_.
Consequently we have no proof that any very large portion, even
of the actual voters of the United States, ever really and
voluntarily consented to the Constitution, _even for the time
being_. Nor can we ever have such proof, until every man is left
perfectly free to consent, or not, without thereby subjecting
himself or his property to be disturbed or injured by others."
As we can have no legal knowledge as to who votes from choice, and who
from the necessity thus forced upon him, we can have no legal knowledge,
as to any particular individual, that he voted from choice; or,
consequently, that by voting, he consented, or pledged himself, to
support the government. Legally speaking, therefore, the act of voting
utterly fails to pledge _any one_ to support the government. It utterly
fails to prove that the government rests upon the voluntary support of
anybody. On general principles of law and reason, it cannot be said that
the government has any voluntary supporters at all, until it can be
distinctly shown who its voluntary supporters are.
4. As taxation is made compulsory on all, whether they vote or not, a
large proportion of those who vote, no doubt do so to prevent their own
money being used against themselves; when, in fact, they would have
gladly abstained from voting, if they could thereby have saved
themselves from taxation alone, to say nothing of being saved from all
the other usurpations and tyrannies of the government. To take a man's
property without his consent, and then to infer his consent because he
attempts, by voting, to prevent that property from being used to his
injury, is a very insufficient proof of his consent to support the
Constitution. It is, in fact, no proof at all. And as we can have no
legal knowledge as to who the particular individuals are, if there are
any, who are willing to be taxed for the sake of voting, we can have no
legal knowledge that any particular individual consents to be taxed for
the sake of voting; or, consequently, consents to support the
Constitution.
5. At nearly all elections, votes are given for various candidates for
the same office. Those who vote for the unsuccessful candidates cannot
properly be said to have voted to sustain the Constitution. They may,
with more reason, be supposed to have voted, not to support the
Constitution, but specially to prevent the tyranny which they anticipate
the successful candidate intends to practice upon them under color of
the Constitution; and therefore may reasonably be supposed to have voted
against the Constitution itself. This supposition is the more
reasonable, inasmuch as such voting is the only mode allowed to them of
expressing their dissent to the Constitution.
6. Many votes are usually given for candidates who have no prospect of
success. Those who give such votes may reasonably be supposed to have
voted as they did, with a special intention, not to support, but to
obstruct the execution of, the Constitution; and, therefore, against the
Constitution itself.
7. As all the different votes are given secretly (by secret ballot),
there is no legal means of knowing, from the votes themselves, who votes
for, and who against, the Constitution. Therefore, voting affords no
legal evidence that any particular individual supports the Constitution.
And where there can be no legal evidence that any particular individual
supports the Constitution, it cannot legally be said that anybody
supports it. It is clearly impossible to have any legal proof of the
intentions of large numbers of men, where there can be no legal proof of
the intentions of any particular one of them.
8. There being no legal proof of any man's intentions, in voting, we can
only conjecture them. As a conjecture, it is probable, that a very large
proportion of those who vote, do so on this principle, viz., that if, by
voting, they could but get the government into their own hands (or that
of their friends), and use its powers against their opponents, they
would then willingly support the Constitution; but if their opponents
are to have the power, and use it against them, then they would _not_
willingly support the Constitution.
In short, men's voluntary support of the Constitution is doubtless, in
most cases, wholly contingent upon the question whether, by means of the
Constitution, they can make themselves masters, or are to be made
slaves.
Such contingent consent as that is, in law and reason, no consent at
all.
9. As everybody who supports the Constitution by voting (if there are
any such) does so secretly (by secret ballot), and in a way to avoid all
personal responsibility for the act of his agents or representatives, it
cannot legally or reasonably be said that anybody at all supports the
Constitution by voting. No man can reasonably or legally be said to do
such a thing as to assent to, or support, the Constitution, _unless he
does it openly, and in a way to make himself personally responsible for
the acts of his agents, so long as they act within the limits of the
power he delegates to them_.
10. As all voting is secret (by secret ballot), and as all secret
governments are necessarily only secret bands of robbers, tyrants, and
murderers, the general fact that our government is practically carried
on by means of such voting, only proves that there is among us a secret
band of robbers, tyrants and murderers, whose purpose is to rob,
enslave, and, so far as necessary to accomplish their purposes, murder,
the rest of the people. The simple fact of the existence of such a band
does nothing towards proving that "the people of the United States," or
any one of them, voluntarily supports the Constitution.
For all the reasons that have now been given, voting furnishes no legal
evidence as to who the particular individuals are (if there are any),
who voluntarily support the Constitution. It therefore furnishes no
legal evidence that anybody supports it voluntarily.
So far, therefore, as voting is concerned, the Constitution, legally
speaking, has no supporters at all.
And, as matter of fact, there is not the slightest probability that the
Constitution has a single bona fide supporter in the country. That is to
say, there is not the slightest probability that there is a single man
in the country, who both understands what the Constitution really is,
_and sincerely supports it for what it really is_.
The ostensible supporters of the Constitution, like the ostensible
supporters of most other governments, are made up of three classes,
viz.: 1. Knaves, a numerous and active class, who see in the government
an instrument which they can use for their own aggrandizement or wealth.
2. Dupes--a large class, no doubt--each of whom, because he is allowed
one voice out of millions in deciding what he may do with his own person
and his own property, and because he is permitted to have the same voice
in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in
robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine
that he is a "free man," a "sovereign"; that this is "a free
government"; "a government of equal rights," "the best government on
earth,"[b] and such like absurdities. 3. A class who have some
appreciation of the evils of government, but either do not see how to
get rid of them, or do not choose to so far sacrifice their private
interests as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of
making a change.