But perhaps the most brilliant idea in your whole address, is this:
_Every citizen owes the country a vigilant watch and close
scrutiny of its public servants,_ and a fair and reasonable
estimate of their fidelity and usefulness. Thus is the people's
will impressed upon the whole framework of our civil policy,
municipal, State, and federal; _and this is the price of our
liberty_, and the inspiration of our faith in the republic.
The essential parts of this declaration are these:
"_Every citizen owes the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of
its public servants, ... and this is the price of our liberty._"
Who are these "public servants," that need all this watching? Evidently
they are the lawmakers, and the lawmakers only. They are not only the
_chief_ "public servants," but they are absolute masters of all the
other "public servants." These other "public servants," judicial and
executive,--the courts, the army, the navy, the collectors of taxes,
etc., etc.,--have no function whatever, except that of simple obedience
to the lawmakers. They are appointed, paid, and have their duties
prescribed to them, by the lawmakers; and are made responsible only to
the lawmakers. They are mere puppets in the hands of the lawmakers.
Clearly, then, the lawmakers are the only ones we have any occasion to
watch.
Your declaration, therefore, amounts, practically, to this, and this
only:
_Every citizen owes the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of
ITS LAWMAKERS, ... and this is the price of our liberty._
Sir, your declaration is so far true, as that all the danger to "our
liberty" _comes solely from the lawmakers_.
And why are the lawmakers dangerous to "our liberty"? Because it is a
natural impossibility that they can _make_ any law--that is, any law of
their own invention--that does _not_ violate "our liberty."
_The law of justice is the one only law that does not violate "our
liberty."_ And that is not a law that was made by the lawmakers. It
existed before they were born, and will exist after they are dead. It
derives not one particle of its authority from any commands of theirs.
It is, therefore, in no sense, one of _their_ laws. Only laws of their
own invention are _their_ laws. And as it is naturally impossible that
they can invent any law of their own, that shall not conflict with the
law of justice, it is naturally impossible that they can _make_ a
law--that is, a law of their own invention--that shall _not_ violate
"our liberty."
The law of justice is the precise measure, and the only precise measure,
of the rightful "liberty" of each and every human being. Any law--made
by lawmakers--that should give to any man more liberty than is given him
by the law of justice, would be a license to commit an injustice upon
one or more other persons. On the other hand, any law--made by
lawmakers--that should take from any human being any "liberty" that is
given him by the law of justice, would be taking from him a part of his
own rightful "liberty."
Inasmuch, then, as every possible law, that can be made by lawmakers,
must either give to some one or more persons more "liberty" than the law
of nature--or the law of justice--gives them, and more "liberty" than is
consistent with the natural and equal "liberty" of all other persons; or
else must take from some one or more persons some portion of that
"liberty" which the law of nature--or the law of justice--gives to every
human being, it is inevitable that every law, that can be made by
lawmakers, must be a violation of the natural and rightful "liberty" of
some one or more persons.
Therefore the very idea of a _lawmaking_ government--a government that
is to make laws of its own invention--is necessarily in direct and
inevitable conflict with "our liberty." In fact, the whole, sole, and
only real purpose of any _lawmaking_ government whatever is to take from
some one or more persons their "liberty." Consequently the only way in
which all men can preserve their "liberty," is not to have any
_lawmaking_ government at all.
We have been told, time out of mind, that "_Eternal vigilance is
the price of liberty_." But this admonition, by reason of its
indefiniteness, has heretofore fallen dead upon the popular mind. It, in
reality, tells us nothing that we need to know, to enable us to preserve
"our liberty." It does not even tell us what "our liberty" is, or how,
or when, or through whom, it is endangered, or destroyed.
1. It does not tell us that _individual_ liberty is the only _human_
liberty. It does not tell us that "national liberty," "political
liberty," "republican liberty," "democratic liberty," "constitutional
liberty," "liberty under law," and all the other kinds of liberty that
men have ever invented, and with which tyrants, as well as demagogues,
have amused and cheated the ignorant, are not liberty at all, unless in
so far as they may, under certain circumstances, have chanced to
contribute something to, or given some impulse toward, _individual_
liberty.
2. It does not tell us that _individual_ liberty means freedom from all
compulsion to do anything whatever, except what justice requires us to
do, and freedom to do everything whatever that justice permits us to do.
It does not tell us that individual liberty means freedom from all human
restraint or coercion whatsoever, so long as we "live honestly, hurt
nobody, and give to every one his due."
3. It does not tell us that there is any _science of liberty_; any
science, which every man may learn, and by which every man may know,
what is, and what is not, his own, and every other man's, rightful
"liberty."
4. It does not tell us that this right of individual liberty rests upon
an immutable, natural principle, which no human power can make, unmake,
or alter; nor that all human authority, that claims to set it aside, or
modify it, is nothing but falsehood, absurdity, usurpation, tyranny, and
crime.
5. It does not tell us that this right of individual liberty is a
_natural, inherent, inalienable right; that therefore no man can part
with it, or delegate it to another, if he would_; and that,
consequently, all the claims that have ever been made, by governments,
priests, or any other powers, that individuals have voluntarily
surrendered, or "delegated," their liberty to others, are all impostures
and frauds.
6. It does not tell us that all human laws, so called, and all human
lawmaking,--all commands, either by one man, or any number of men,
calling themselves a government, or by any other name--requiring any
individual to do this, or forbidding him to do that--so long as he
"lives honestly, hurts no one, and gives to every one his due"--are all
false and tyrannical assumptions of a right of authority and dominion
over him; are all violations of his natural, inherent, inalienable,
rightful, individual liberty; and, as such, are to be resented and
resisted to the utmost, by every one who does not choose to be a slave.
7. And, finally, it does not tell us that all _lawmaking_ governments
whatsoever--whether called monarchies, aristocracies, republics,
democracies, or by any other name--are all alike violations of men's
natural and rightful liberty.
We can now see why lawmakers are the only enemies, from whom "our
liberty" has anything to fear, or whom we have any occasion to watch.
They are to be watched, because they claim the right to abolish justice,
and establish injustice in its stead; because they claim the right to
command us to do things which justice does not require us to do, and to
forbid us to do things which justice permits us to do; because they deny
our right to be, _individually, and absolutely_, our own masters and
owners, so long as we obey the one law of justice towards all other
persons; because they claim to be our masters, and that _their_
commands, _as such_, are authoritative and binding upon us as law; and
that they may rightfully compel us to obey them.
"Our liberty" is in danger only from the lawmakers, because it is only
through the agency of lawmakers, that anybody pretends to be able to
take away "our liberty." It is only the lawmakers that claim to be above
all responsibility for taking away "our liberty." Lawmakers are the only
ones who are impudent enough to assert for themselves the right to take
away "our liberty." They are the only ones who are impudent enough to
tell us that we have voluntarily surrendered "our liberty" into their
hands. They are the only ones who have the insolent condescension to
tell us that, in consideration of our having surrendered into their
hands "our liberty," and all our natural, inherent, inalienable rights
as human beings, they are disposed to give us, in return, "good
government," "the best form of government ever vouchsafed to man"; to
"protect" us, to provide for our "welfare," to promote our "interests,"
etc., etc.
And yet you are just blockhead enough to tell us that if "Every
citizen"--fifty millions and more of them--will but keep "a vigilant
watch and close scrutiny" upon these lawmakers, "our liberty" may be
preserved!
Don't you think, sir, that you are really the wisest man that ever told
"a great and free people" how they could preserve "their liberty"?
To be entirely candid, don't you think, sir, that a surer way of
preserving "our liberty" would be to have no lawmakers at all?