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A Second Letter to Thomas F. Bayard,
CHALLENGING HIS RIGHT, AND THAT OF ALL OTHER
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A Second Letter to Thomas F. Bayard,
CHALLENGING HIS RIGHT, AND THAT OF ALL OTHER
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To Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware:
| LB2.1 | SIR, – In your speech at Brooklyn, N.Y., on the 5th of April last, in response to the toast, “The Supreme Law of the Land,” you indulged in this astonishing flight of unveracity: |
| LB2.2 |
“Room for His majesty! Room for His majesty! Whose voice is the conscience of the American people, and whole throne is in the American heart! I speak now of the Supreme Law of this Land! What is it? It is liberty, clad in the words, and manifested in the forms, of the written charter of our government, ordained to secure it [liberty] for us, and for our posterity! I mean by this, that the Supreme Law of this Land, declared to be so in the charter itself, [What better proof can be required that it is the Supreme Law, than its own declaration that it is so!] is, by its observance, the true and only means of maintaining liberty in this land! Neglect it, forget it, disregard it, disobey it, weary of its commands, and you neglect, you disregard, and you will lose, liberty itself! Obey it, cherish it, studiously respect it, and liberty will flourish, and bless us and our posterity! I don’t think that these simple conditions can need more than this simple statement. [Oh, yes, they need a little proof.] They are sublime in their simplicity! They are incalculable in their value! They are mighty in their truth!”* |
| LB2.3 | Don’t you think, Sir, that your own “simplicity” is a little “sublime,” when you tell us that this paper, the constitution, which nobody ever signed, which few people ever read, which the great body of the people never saw, and about whose meaning no two persons ever agreed, is “the Supreme Law of the Land?” That it is “the conscience of the American people?” That it is the voice of liberty itself? and that “its observance is the true and only means of maintaining liberty in this land?” |
| LB2.4 | Yet again and again, throughout your speech, you repeat the idea, that thisso-called constitution, which nobody ever signed, which few people ever read, which the great body of the people never saw, and about whose meaning no two persons ever agreed, is “The Supreme Law of this Land!” |
| LB2.5 | Sir, where did this wonderful constitution come from, that you should describe it as “The Supreme Law of this Land?” Was it let down from the skies by a higher than human power? Was it a revelation from a higher than human wisdom? Did it originate with any body who had any rightful authority to impose it upon the people of this country? Was it not concocted in secret conclave, by some forty men, who had no more authority over the people of this country, than any other forty men in it? Was it originally sanctioned by any body but a few white, male adults, who had prescribed amounts of property? And who, by virtue of that property, presumed to announce themselves as “We, the people of the United States;” and to “ordain and establish” this constitution on their own authority alone? Was it not practically a conspiracy, on their part, to impose their arbitrary will upon a or, ignorant, and scattered people, who were too weak to resist? |
| LB2.6 | And is not this constitution kept in operation today solely by men – not more than one-fifth of the whole people – who give their votes in secret (by secret ballot), solely because they dare not give them in a way to make themselves personally responsible for the acts of their agents? And what are these votes, given in secret, interpreted to mean, other than that the whole fifty millions of people – four-fifths of whom are allowed no voice in the matter – surrender all their natural rights to life, liberty, and property into the hands of some four hundred men, who are to be held to no responsibility whatever for the disposal they make of them? |
| LB2.7 | Sir, this declaration of yours, that the constitution (so-called) is “the Supreme Law of this Land,” is utterly, flagrantly, shamefully false. Justice alone is the Supreme Law of this land, and of all other lands. And if you do not know it, your ignorance is so dense as to be pitiable. And if the audience that applauded your speech do not know that justice itself is the only supreme law of this, or any other, land, their ignorance is also so dense as to be pitiable. |
| LB2.8 | And it is not because your “Supreme Law of the Land,” the constitution – but because the supreme law of justice is “neglected,” “forgotten,” “disregarded,” and “disobeyed,” that our liberty is lost; or, rather, never had an existence. And if you and your audience do not know that such is the truth, your and their ignorance is certainly deplorable. |
| LB2.9 | And let me repeat, what I have heretofore said to you, that justice is a science to be learned, like any other science, and not any thing that can be made, unmade, or altered, by constitutions, or Congresses, or any other human power. This is a fact, of which you and other legislators, as you call yourselves, are strangely oblivious. |
| LB2.10 | In your speech, you attempted to picture to your audience how “the loss of liberty,” in this land, and all the direful consequences of that loss, result from “the unbridled will of a congressional majority.” |
| LB2.11 | But for some reason, or another, you did not see fit to tell your audience where this “unbridled will of a congressional majority” had its origin. Perhaps you had forgotten it; although I had pointedly reminded you of it long ago. It will do you no harm, and may perhaps do you good, to be reminded of it again. Let me then say to you gain, that all this “unbridled will of a congressional majority,” which you hold up to our view as the sole cause of our “loss of liberty,” had its origin – its fountain head ، in that very constitution – that same “Supreme Law of this Land” – “whose observance,” you tell us, “is the true and only means of maintaining liberty in this land!” |
| LB2.12 |
In proof that such is the truth, I give you again the very words of the constitution itself. They are these:
For any speech, or debate, [or vote] in either house, they [the senators and representatives] shall not be questioned [held to any legal accountability] in any other place. Const., Art. I, Sec. 6. |
| LB2.13 | Here you see, Sir, that this “unbridled will of a congressional majority,” of which you profess such a horror, is simply the legislative will of men, who, by your “Supreme Law,” are made wholly irresponsible for the laws they make. |
| LB2.14 | Do you expect men to act otherwise than according to their “unbridled will,” when you have put into their hands all power over the property, liberty, and lives of their fellowmen, and guaranteed them against all responsibility for the disposal they make of them? |
| LB2.15 | Do you not know that this freedom from all responsibility for their acts was guaranteed to them, solely that they might dispose of the property, liberty, and lives of their fellowmen, according to their own “unbridled will?” |
| LB2.16 | Do you not know that this freedom from all accountability for the laws they make, is the one only reason why they dare put “their unbridled will” into the form of law, and impose it upon the people? |
| LB2.17 | Plainly the one only motive, purpose, or effect of this provision of the constitution is to let loose upon the people “the unbridled will of a congressional majority;” that very “unbridled will,” which you denounce, and truly denounce, as fatal to liberty. |
| LB2.18 | Is it possible that you had forgotten this provision of the constitution, when you declared that “its observance” was “the true and only means of maintaining liberty in this land?” |
| LB2.19 | Have you yourself ever read the constitution; or are you as ignorant of it as are the people generally, who submit to it? |
| LB2.20 | If you have ever read the constitution, what do you mean by telling us that it authorizes any legislation at all, except such as “the unbridled will of a congressional majority” may choose to enact? Can you tell us what other legislation it authorizes? Or what other purpose it has than simply to organize, and give effect to, “the unbridled will of a congressional majority?” |
| LB2.21 | And yet you extol it, and fall down and worship it, as if it were the very oracle, the very soul, of liberty itself? |
| LB2.22 | Sir, when you declare the constitution to be “the Supreme Law of this land,” and that “its observance is the true and only means of maintaining liberty in this land,” do you not see that you are saying, in effect, that abject submission to “the unbridled will of a congressional majority” is “the true and only means of maintaining liberty in this land?” |
| LB2.23 | Do you not see that you are declaring in the same breath, that abject submission to “the unbridled will; of a congressional majority” is both liberty and slavery? And, consequently, that under the constitution, liberty and slavery are one and the same thing? |
| LB2.24 | Have you lost your senses, that you can talk in this absurd and self-contradictory manner? |
| LB2.25 | You talk of the “insolence” of this “unbridled will of a congressional majority,” as if it were something at which you have reason to be surprised, amazed, or indignant. But are you really such a simpleton as to expect any thing but “insolence” from “the unbridled will” of men intrusted with unlimited power, and guaranteed against all responsibility for their acts? |
| LB2.26 | You seem to be astonished at the recent decision of the supreme court, giving congress all powers not expressly prohibited; and especially all such [unlimited] powers as are exercised by “other civilized governments.” But that decision is easily accounted for – in this wise: That court had read the constitution, and sworn to support it, (art. 1, sec. 6, as well as the rest); and they saw that it authorized no legislation at all, except such as “the unbridled will of a congressional majority” might choose to enact; that it authorized no government at all, except one by “the unbridled will of a congressional majority.” |
| LB2.27 | That court saw, too, that it was itself created and sustained only by “the unbridled will of a congressional majority;” that it owed its very existence to, and was a mere dependent creature of, that “unbridled will;” that it was suffered to exist for no other purpose than to give its sanction to that “unbridled will;” and that, so soon as it should cease to perform that function, its occupation would be gone. |
| LB2.28 | Are you so blind as not to see all this? Why, then, are you surprised that this dependent creature should fail to attempt the absurd and impossible task of imposing restraints upon “the unbridled will” of its own creator, sustainer, and final judge? If that court ever should attempt to impose restraints upon “the unbridled will” of its creator, which do you think would be likely to get the worst of it, the creature or the creator? |
| LB2.29 | But what is your remedy for “our loss of liberty?” and for our subjection to “the unbridled will of a congressional majorioty?” |
| LB2.30 | Let the nation now open all its ears, and hear your remedy! |
| LB2.31 | It is “State Rights! State Rights!” |
| LB2.32 | And what are State Rights? Are they any thing else than subjection to “the unbridled will of legislative majorities?” Do not all, or very nearly all, the state constitutions expressly prescribe that their law-makers shall be exempt from all legal accountability for the laws they make? Do they not prescribe that all legislation shall be such, and only such, as “the unbridled wills of majorities” shall see fit to enact? Certainly they do. And is not “the unbridled will of majorities,” in the state legislatures, just as inconsistent with liberty, and just as fatal to liberty, as is “the unbridled will of congressional majorities” Certainly it is. Clearly there is no difference of principle between them. Your only remedy, therefore, for our loss of liberty, and our subjection to “the unbridled will of a congressional majority,” is to put ourselves under subjection to “the unbridled will of majorities” in the state legislatures! |
| LB2.33 | You do not proposed to abolish outright the legislative power of these “unbridled congressional majorities.” Oh, no; you only propose to hold them somewhat in check by opposing to them “the unbridled wills of legislative majorities” in the states! |
| LB2.34 | You imagine that in the contests which these “unbridled majorities,” in the states and the nation, will naturally get into with each other, over the people – the carcass they are all fighting for – the carcass itself will escape unhurt! |
| LB2.35 | Oh, Sapient Senator! Can the world ever pay you for giving it such wisdom! Such an infallible recipe for saving to mankind their liberty! Such a miraculous safeguard against “the unbridled will of a congressional majority!” |
| LB2.36 | Sapient, Oracular Senator, your remedy is absurd and spurious altogether. It is utterly inadequate – it has no tendency whatever – to save us from “the unbridled will of legislative majorities.” It only multiplies the number of such majorities, without at all altering their character. If you cannot see this, I repeat that you are mentally an object of pity. |
| LB2.37 | What, then, is the remedy? Is “the unbridled will” of a legislative minority any less inconsistent with, or any less fatal to, liberty, than is “the unbridled will of a majority?” Plainly not at all. |
| LB2.38 | But all legislation must necessarily proceed from “the unbridled will” of either a majority, or minority; for there are on earth no other lawmakers than majorities and minorities. |
| LB2.39 | Do you not see, Sir, that you are in a dilemma? And that there is only one door of escape from it? It is this: We want no legislation at all. We want only justice and liberty; and justice and liberty are one. |
| LB2.40 | Justice, I repeat, is the supreme law of this land, and of all other lands. And being everywhere and always the supreme law, it is necessarily everywhere and always the only law. And justice is a science to be learned; and not any thing that majorities, or minorities, or any other human power, can make, unmake, or alter. It is also so easily learned that mankind have no valid excuse for attempting to set up any other in its stead. |
| LB2.41 | Sir, this constitution, which you declare to be “the Supreme Law of this Land,” had its origin solely in “the unbridled will” of some majority, or minority – neither of which had any right to establish it. And neither you yourself, nor any one of your associate senators or representatives, has any authority whatever under it, except such as you have derived from “the unbridled will” of some majority, or minority, who had no right to delegate to you any such power, but who took it upon themselves to destroy the liberty of their fellow-men, and usurp an irresponsible dominion over them. And you and all your associate legislators in congress are today nothing else than the servile and criminal agents of “the unbridled wills” of the majorities, or minorities – no matter which – that selected you to do their bidding; and that will discard you, and put others in your places, the moment you fail to do it. |
| LB2.42 | Was it necessary for me to tell you this, to make it clear to your own mind? |
| LB2.43 | But, Sir, notwithstanding all the absurdities and self-contradictions, by which you had stultified yourself, you could not close your speech without making a still further attack upon the credulity of your audience. This you did by your assertion that “Politics is not a trick! Government is not a swindle!”** |
| LB2.44 | This declaration is certainly “important, if true.” And I do not wonder that you felt the necessity of uttering it. But if it be true, perhaps you can tell us by what power, or what process, fifty millions of people became divested of all their natural, inherent, inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and all these rights became transferred to, and vested in, four hundred men, to be disposed of by “the unbridled will of a majority” of them. Do you think that any jugglery of votes, by even ten millions of men, can have really accomplished such an astonishing and wholesale transfer of men’s natural, inherent, and inalienable rights? Just mark the words, natural, inherent, and inalienable, if you wish to comprehend the impossibility of what you assert. Yet you are bound to say that all this was possible, if you say that the four hundred have now any valid authority whatever for even trespassing upon the least of all these natural, inherent, inalienable rights; for, if they have any valid authority for trespassing upon the least of them, they have an equally valid authority for striking the whole of them out of existence. And this is really the theory on which our government now acts. It acknowledges no limits to its own power; and consequently denies the existence of any natural rights whatever remaining inn the people. If, in all this alleged transfer of rights, from the people to the government, there has been no “trick,” and no “swindle,” it is because the whole transaction has been a simple, open, naked, undisguised usurpation and robbery. |
| LB2.45 | I hope you are not so blind as not to see this. |
| LB2.46 | If, Sir, you should ever again pay your adoration to “The Supreme Law of this land,” and should call upon the rest of mankind to kneel with you, let me advise that – to prevent any confusion of ideas, and avoid any apparent contradictions – while expressing the same sentiments, you make some slight changes in your phraseology. I would suggest the following, as being more simple, more clear, and therefore preferable: |
| LB2.47 |
Room for their Majesties! Room for their Majesties! Room for the unbridled wills of all legislative majorities, state and national! The more we have of them the better! They are the true and only means of maintaining liberty in this land! Neglect them, forget them, disregard them, disobey them, weary of their commands, and you neglect, you disregard, and you will lose, liberty itself! Obey them, cherish them, studiously respect them, recognize them as the Supreme Laws of this Land, accept them as the conscience of the American people, make your hearts their thrones, and liberty will flourish, and bless us and our posterity! I don’t think that these simple conditions can need more than this simple statement. They are sublime in their simplicity! They are incalculable in their value! They are mighty in their truth! |
| LB2.48 | Here you will see, Sir, that your ideas have been scrupulously preserved, while the form of expression has been, I hope, a little improved. |
| LB2.49 | But lest some persons, who may listen to your exhortations, should be so dull, or so perverse, as to imagine that all this “liberty,” which you promise them, would be only slavery under another name, let me advise that you assure them, upon your honor as one of those legislators whose “unbridled wills” they are to be required to obey, that “POLITICS IS NOT A TRICK! GOVERNMENT IS NOT A SWINDLE!” |
| LB2.50 |
If they should be so stolid as not to see the truth, or feel the force, of these asseverations, so “sublime in their simplicity,” so “incalculable in their value,” so “mighty in their truth,” let me advise that you throw no more gems of political wisdom before such unappreciative creatures, but turn your back on them, and leave them to “lose their liberty.”
Frankly yours, LYSANDER SPOONER. BOSTON, MAY 17, 1884.
[Liberty 2, no. 16 (whole no. 42, 17 May 1884), pp. 6-7.]
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| LB2-n1.1 | * The above extract from your speech is taken from the Boston “Sunday Herald” of April 6, 1884. |
| LB2-n2.1 | ** This extract is taken from the report of your speech in the New York “Herald” of April 6. |
