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PETITION,
_from_ CHAS. M. HIGGINS
_of Brooklyn, N. Y.
a citizen of the United States_
TO
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
_Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy
Washington, D. C._
Mr. President:
American History, as you well know, tells us that our first President,
the illustrious George Washington, died in 1799 as the result of a
medical malpractice common at that time, viz., the barbarous and
dangerous practice of indiscriminate bleeding to cure disease. While
suffering from an attack of acute sore throat or laryngitis, the
patient was so weakened by the great loss of vital fluid in repeated
bleeding operations that he was not able to endure this loss and
overcome also the effects of the disease. Our great Washington thus
gave up his glorious life--glorious in the establishment of American
Liberty and the principles of Inalienable Natural Rights of the
Individual as a basis for all Government--on the altar of medical
barbarism and malpractice.
HISTORIC WARNING IN THE DEATH OF OUR FIRST PRESIDENT FROM MEDICAL
MALPRACTICE
Let us now take this warning from the medical barbarism of the past,
even over such a long interval of time, as a fit warning against the
medical malpractices and barbarisms of to-day, which are even more
irrational and dangerous to human right and safety, health and life
than the malpractice of the past which destroyed the life of our first
President.
COMPULSORY VACCINATION THE GREAT MEDICAL MALPRACTICE OF TO-DAY WHICH
KILLS MANY WHERE BLEEDING KILLED ONE
Now the most barbarous and dangerous medical practice of to-day is the
gross evil of compulsory vaccination, which is doubtless the greatest
violation of common sense, medical propriety and the unalienable
natural rights of the individual guaranteed in our basic American
Charters, that any dogmatic, presumptuous profession or class of
men has ever been guilty of. And it is to this serious violation of
American principle forced on our soldiers and sailors by medical
dogmatism that I now wish to ask your most careful attention as one
having the supreme commanding and pardoning power in Army and Navy,
with the earnest prayer that in the exercise of that exalted wisdom and
power possessed by your great American Office and Personality, which
has now made itself felt around the whole world, that this medical
barbarism of compulsory disease may be abolished in our Army and Navy,
and that all men condemned by Court Martial for refusing the infliction
on their bodies of compulsory disease shall be fully pardoned and
restored to their proper and honorable status as loyal American
soldiers and sailors. And I now wish to present to you in the following
pages an abundant array of facts and evidence which prove, I think,
beyond doubt, the great evil and danger of vaccination, its fatality,
and futility, and clearly justify the rational reform suggested for the
abolishment of all forced or compulsory vaccination.
THE MODERN MEDICAL BARBARISM POISONS THE BLOOD IN THE BODY INSTEAD OF
DRAINING THE BLOOD OUT OF THE BODY
In this medical malpractice of to-day the doctors do not open the
veins and drain out the life blood of the patient, ostensibly to cure
his disease, as in the mistaken past, but they now keep this blood in
the body and inject into it directly or indirectly various more or
less virulent diseases, blood poisons, or disease germs, cultures or
products, either living or dead, with the idea of curing or preventing
some natural disease. These practices are called, respectively,
“vaccination” and “serum treatment.” In vaccination an actual living or
dead disease germ, or virus, is injected into the blood, lymph, skin or
muscle; whereas, in serum or antitoxin treatment a disease product or
culture is so injected.
VACCINATION THE MOST DANGEROUS AND REPULSIVE SYSTEM OF MEDICATION EVER
DEVISED
Now, whatever merits or demerits this system of disease inoculation
may have, either in preventing or curing or immunizing against natural
disease, I will not here say and do not need to here discuss, except to
state that such curative or preventive power has been much exaggerated
and is very limited and uncertain. But whatever these merits or
demerits may be, it is obvious on fundamental principles of medical and
civic ethics, that such a dangerous and repugnant practice of disease
inoculation and blood poisoning should not be made compulsory on any
person for any excuse whatever. It must be here remembered that it was
admitted that the old smallpox inoculation had a certain preventive
power and yet it was finally condemned and abandoned for reasons of
its great danger as causing more disease and death than it prevented.
Disregarding, therefore, the question of preventive merits or demerits,
I think I can now say with perfect truth and soberness, and without
fear of refutation, that this modern system of compulsory vaccination
is the most violent and dangerous and most immoral or unethical system
of medication that has ever been devised by a most honorable yet most
presumptuous profession which has been proved guilty of the most
gigantic medical mistakes in its past history of the centuries, one
of which--indiscriminate bleeding--as we have already seen, killed
our first President and many other victims of that period. To this
gigantic and abandoned mistake we might now add the two horrible
practices of smallpox inoculation and arm-to-arm vaccination, both of
which were once used and approved by the highest medical authority
as safe and infallible preventives of natural disease, yet both were
finally abandoned as great medical mistakes and were prohibited by
penal law as most risky methods of propagating and extending disease
and more dangerous to human health and life than the natural disease
itself.
VACCINATION IS BLOOD POISONING WITH INFLICTED DISEASE AND IS OFTEN MORE
FATAL THAN NATURAL DISEASE
For these former medical mistakes there is now substituted the modern
medical mistake of compulsory bovine and serum vaccinations of various
kinds and multiple repetitions which are in many instances as dangerous
to human health and life as the former prohibited malpractices, or
more so, and will, doubtless, in due time, be publicly condemned and
abandoned as equal mistakes, like their predecessors.
Indeed, this modern vaccine system of medicine is so violent and
dangerous that it has been frequently known to kill in from ten to
fifteen minutes, after injection of the serum, by what is known as
“serum sickness,” which is a kind of rapid blood and nerve poisoning
affecting vital nerve centers, to which some persons are very
susceptible.[1] This is, of course, a more violent, rapid and fatal
action than occurs in the most virulent and deadly natural diseases and
is comparable only to a stroke of lightning or shock of electricity or
to the violent action of the most virulent chemical, mineral, animal,
or vegetable poisons known in toxicology. In other fatal cases, where
the poisoning action is slower, death finally occurs from lockjaw,
paralysis, meningitis, or pneumonia, which are frequent results of
vaccination. And these fatal results of vaccination are commonly
denied and concealed in death certificates by recording the terminal
disease of lockjaw, paralysis, meningitis, or pneumonia only as the
sole and original cause of death without any record of the inflicted
disease--vaccination--as the primary or contributory cause of the
death. This evil practice is, of course, a gross falsification of
our vital statistics, and is now a frequent offense by some of our
vaccinating doctors, as I can legally prove by documentary evidence
when required.
In some death certificates, however, the vaccination is more or less
clearly and honestly acknowledged as the cause of death, direct or
indirect. I have now in hand a recent New York death certificate which
records the death of a little child one year old in three days after
vaccination from vaccinal septicemia, or blood poisoning, due to the
vaccinal infection.
EVERY VACCINATION SORE IS AN INFECTING ABSCESS AND EVERY ACT OF
VACCINATION IS A BLOOD INFECTION CAPABLE OF CAUSING SERIOUS DISEASE OR
DEATH AT ANY TIME
And let me here say that every vaccination sore is simply a septicemic
abscess and focus of infection, more or less dangerous, and is possibly
capable of infecting the whole system at any time with fatal effect;
and, furthermore, every act of ordinary cowpox vaccination is, of
course, an act of septicemic infection or blood poisoning, _per se_,
and pure and simple, and frequently kills in this way in the longer or
shorter time of a few days, which is, of course, quicker than the worst
forms of natural smallpox ever kill. See Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, pages
83 to 88. On this point see also the “Manual of Causes of Death,” by
U. S. Census Bureau, page 56, No. 20, and the corresponding Manual of
the Registrar General of England, in which vaccination is recorded as a
form of septicemia and a serious cause of death.
As further convincing evidence on this head, I have a Brooklyn death
certificate showing the death of a woman hospital nurse six months
after vaccination, from multiple abscesses which broke out all over the
body in successive crops and continued for six months notwithstanding
the most skillful medical efforts for cure, and finally resulted in
death from general vaccinal septicemia. See Figs. 11, 12 and 13, which
show other cases of this kind.
I have an English certificate showing the death of a man from the same
cause, multiple abscesses, resulting from vaccination and continuing
for seven years, and finally ending in death from this cause.
I have also another English certificate which shows the death of a
little infant from vaccinal septicemia in thirty-four hours after
vaccination! Of course the worst form of smallpox was never known to
kill in such short time.
These shocking facts thus clearly show that an inflicted disease may be
far worse and more fatal than a naturally acquired disease, and that
vaccination may kill with surprising swiftness in a few days, hours,
or minutes, quicker than the most fatal natural diseases or the most
virulent poisons, or may continue a most horrible blood infection with
internal or external eruptions through an agony of months or years and
finally end in death from this infection.
I have also some recent American death certificates which show the
deaths of five little children of primary school age, all killed in
one week in September, 1915, from vaccination resulting in lockjaw
and septicemia. I have now in hand a memorial pamphlet written by an
aggrieved father, a very intelligent man, an editor and manufacturer,
Mr. James A. Loyster, of Cazenovia, New York, which shows the death of
his own son and about thirty other children from vaccination in New
York State in 1914. This child slaughter was the result of a general
vaccination raid made upon the school children of the State in that
year; and this pamphlet gives convincing proof that about thirty, and
probable proof that about twice that number, were killed by vaccine
infection, _while only three persons died from smallpox in the whole
State for the same year_! See pages 145 to 163, which give several
pages of this pamphlet in full.
COMPULSORY VACCINATION AS A CONDITION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLING OR
FOR SERVICE IN ARMY AND NAVY IS MEDICALLY BARBAROUS AND LEGALLY
UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AND SHOULD BE ABOLISHED
These deadly vaccinations above cited were almost all performed on
school children to satisfy an evil law which has been originated and
sustained by a powerful but mistaken part or sect of the medical
profession--the vaccine sect--by which law vaccination is forced
upon children of school age as a condition for admission to school,
thus making the infliction of a dangerous disease on the tender body
of the child a condition for the exercise of that most essential,
unquestionable, and inalienable right of the child to _Education_!
Such invasion of natural right to life, health, and education is
surely the clearest violation of those great American principles of
inherent natural rights so distinctly set forth in the Declaration and
Constitution which all Governments must respect and defend, as I will
show later on.
ABOLISH ALL COMPULSORY VACCINATION IN ARMY AND NAVY AND APPOINT DOCTORS
OF VARIOUS SCHOOLS ON ALL MEDICAL AND HEALTH BOARDS
In the same way this dogmatic and dominant part or sect of the
medical profession, organized in powerful medical societies and now
controlling important public offices, has forced the dangerous practice
of general compulsory vaccination upon our Army and Navy, and this
practice is, I believe, largely the result of having only one school of
medicine--the vaccine school--represented on our Medical Boards and in
our Departments of Health and Vital Statistics. To thus have only one
school of medicine represented on our Medical Boards of Army and Navy
is, I submit, as great a mistake, as unjust, absurd, and un-American,
as it would be to have only one school of Religion represented in our
Army and Navy chaplains. For, surely, medical tolerance and freedom is
as important for national welfare as religious tolerance and freedom.
And to this particular point, Mr. President, I would, therefore, now
like to ask your first and most careful attention, with the suggestion
and hope that, as supreme commander of both arms of the service, you
will not only find it just, wise, and proper to abolish all compulsory
vaccination in Army and Navy and leave vaccination entirely voluntary
with each man, as it now is in the English Army, but that you will also
abolish all arrogant monopoly or control of medical practice in Army
and Navy by any one school of medicine, and will adopt the reform in
the future of having various schools of medicine properly and justly
represented on our Medical Boards, from which reform, I believe, a
great improvement in medical practice and in public right, health, and
comfort is sure to result.
CRUEL AND UNUSUAL, EXCESSIVE AND UNREASONABLE PUNISHMENTS ARE
UNCONSTITUTIONAL. MORAL AND MEDICAL MONSTROSITY OF LONG TERMS OF
IMPRISONMENT FOR REFUSING VACCINATION
At this point I would like to call your careful attention to a news
item which appeared in the _New York Times_ of May 2, 1918, as follows:
“_Refused Vaccination, Got Fifteen Years._
“Camp Dodge, Iowa, May 1.--Elmer N. Olson, of Goodrich, Minn.,
a soldier in training here, refused to submit to vaccination.
He was tried by general court-martial and sentenced to fifteen
years in the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth.”
This is only one of many similar items which have appeared in the press
for the last two years, showing that it has been a practice in the
army to try soldiers by court-martial for refusing to be vaccinated
against free will and consent; and to degrade them from honorable
military service merely for this refusal, and condemn them to long
terms of imprisonment such as are given only to dangerous and felonious
criminals under the criminal law,--and it is shown in this item that
the extraordinary punishment of fifteen years’ imprisonment was thus
inflicted for the sole offense of refusing compulsory vaccination! It
may be that in some cases other offenses besides mere refusal to be
vaccinated were involved, but I understand from several news items that
only the act of refusal to submit to forced vaccination was involved in
many such condemnations.
In answer to a special request for information on this point, I have
been informed by the office of the Judge Advocate General, in a
letter dated January 14, 1919, that there was only one instance of
court-martial for refusing to be vaccinated in the years 1917 and
1918, that this was held to be a violation of the 96th Article of War,
and that the offender in this case was sentenced to be “_Dishonorably
discharged from the service, to forfeit all pay and allowances due or
to become due, and to be confined at hard labor at such place as the
convening authority may direct for twenty-five years_.”
Now I respectfully submit, Mr. President, that whether there were
one or many cases of this kind, they were clearly cases of “cruel
and unusual” and excessive and unreasonable punishment and also an
“unreasonable search and seizure of the person,” condemned in the
Constitution in Articles IV and VIII of the Amendments, as follows:
ARTICLE IV. “The right of the people to be secure in their
persons ... against unreasonable searches and seizures shall
not be violated.”
ARTICLE VIII. “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments
inflicted.”
I therefore think it is perfectly obvious that to thus degrade a loyal
and honorable soldier and condemn him like a felonious criminal to the
long term of fifteen or twenty-five years’ imprisonment, merely for the
act of refusing to have a dangerous medical operation and an inflicted
disease forced upon his body against his will and consent, is clearly
an “unreasonable seizure” of the person and a “cruel and unusual” and
excessive and unreasonable punishment prohibited in the Constitution;
and I think that no further argument is necessary to prove this point.
Surely to inflict such drastic punishments as above shown--not for any
really criminal, immoral, or perfidious act--not for anything that
really affects the purely military duties, qualities, or services of
any loyal, honorable and healthy soldier--but simply for opposing a
dangerous medical dogma and defending his body against an inflicted
disease and a dangerous medical operation which frequently sickens and
unfits the soldier for a long time afterwards for military service and
sometimes actually kills--as already clearly proved--surely, I say,
such a punishment is not only legally unconstitutional, but is morally
barbarous in both a true military and true medical sense, and should
be abolished in both Army and Navy for the several reasons herein
submitted.