WEBVTT

NOTE Section II

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000
Section 2. Let us consider these two matters, voting and tax-paying, separately.

2
00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:09.000
And first, of voting.

3
00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:18.000
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,

4
00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:24.000
but it did not even pledge any one of them to do so, as the following considerations show.

5
00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:25.480
1.

6
00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:31.440
In the very nature of things, the act of voting could bind nobody but the actual voters.

7
00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:36.720
But owing to the property qualifications required, it is probable that during the first twenty

8
00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:42.520
or thirty years under the Constitution, not more than one-tenth, fifteenth, or perhaps

9
00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:48.480
twentieth of the whole population, black and white, men, women, and minors, were permitted

10
00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:49.680
to vote.

11
00:00:49.680 --> 00:00:56.000
Consequently, so far as voting was concerned, not more than one-tenth, fifteenth, or twentieth

12
00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:02.000
of those then existing could have incurred any obligation to support the Constitution.

13
00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:06.920
At the present time, it is probable that not more than one-sixth of the whole population

14
00:01:06.920 --> 00:01:08.920
are permitted to vote.

15
00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:14.960
Consequently, so far as voting is concerned, the other five-sixths can have given no pledge

16
00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:17.680
that they will support the Constitution.

17
00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:19.400
2.

18
00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:24.920
Of the one-sixth that are permitted to vote, probably not more than two-thirds, about one-ninth

19
00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:28.440
of the whole population, have usually voted.

20
00:01:28.440 --> 00:01:30.360
Many never vote at all.

21
00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:36.340
Many vote only once in two, three, five, or ten years in periods of great excitement.

22
00:01:36.340 --> 00:01:41.400
No one, by voting, can be said to pledge himself for any longer period than that for which

23
00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:42.440
he votes.

24
00:01:42.440 --> 00:01:48.640
If, for example, I vote for an officer who is to hold his office for only a year, I cannot

25
00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:53.640
be said to have thereby pledged myself to support the government beyond that term.

26
00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:58.480
Therefore, on the ground of actual voting, it probably cannot be said that more than

27
00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:04.080
one-ninth or one-eighth of the whole population are usually under any pledge to support the

28
00:02:04.080 --> 00:02:05.680
Constitution.

29
00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:07.400
3.

30
00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:12.540
It cannot be said that by voting a man pledges himself to support the Constitution unless

31
00:02:12.540 --> 00:02:17.000
the act of voting be a perfectly voluntary one on his part.

32
00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:22.380
Yet the act of voting cannot properly be called a voluntary one on the part of any very large

33
00:02:22.380 --> 00:02:24.520
number of those who do vote.

34
00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:29.480
It is rather a measure of necessity imposed upon them by others than of one of their own

35
00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:30.920
choosing.

36
00:02:30.920 --> 00:02:35.560
On this point I repeat what was said in a former number, that is,

37
00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:41.880
In truth, the case of individuals, their actual voting is not to be taken as proof of consent,

38
00:02:41.880 --> 00:02:43.760
even for the time being.

39
00:02:43.760 --> 00:02:48.860
On the contrary, it is to be considered that without his consent having even been asked,

40
00:02:48.860 --> 00:02:54.540
a man finds himself environed by a government that he cannot resist, a government that forces

41
00:02:54.540 --> 00:03:00.180
him to pay money, render service, and forego the exercise of many of his natural rights

42
00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:03.260
under the peril of weighty punishments.

43
00:03:03.260 --> 00:03:08.060
He sees too that other men practice this tyranny over him by the use of the ballot.

44
00:03:08.060 --> 00:03:13.300
He sees further that if he will but use the ballot himself, he has some chance of relieving

45
00:03:13.300 --> 00:03:18.080
himself from this tyranny of others by subjecting them to his own.

46
00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:24.260
In short, he finds himself without his consent so situated that if he used the ballot he

47
00:03:24.260 --> 00:03:30.300
may become a master, if he does not use it, he must become a slave, and he has no other

48
00:03:30.300 --> 00:03:32.740
alternative than these two.

49
00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:35.860
In self-defense, he attempts the former.

50
00:03:35.860 --> 00:03:40.140
His case is analogous to that of a man who has been forced into battle, where he must

51
00:03:40.140 --> 00:03:43.620
either kill others or be killed himself.

52
00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:48.580
Because to save his own life in battle, a man attempts to take the lives of his opponents,

53
00:03:48.580 --> 00:03:52.780
it is not to be inferred that the battle is one of his own choosing.

54
00:03:52.780 --> 00:03:57.860
Neither in contests with the ballot, which is a mere substitute for a bullet, because

55
00:03:57.860 --> 00:04:03.020
Because as his only chance of self-preservation, a man uses a ballot, is it to be inferred

56
00:04:03.020 --> 00:04:08.400
that the contest is one into which he voluntarily entered, that he voluntarily set up all his

57
00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:13.020
natural rights as a stake against those of others to be lost or won by the mere power

58
00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:14.400
of numbers?

59
00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:19.340
On the contrary, it is to be considered that in an exigency into which he had been forced

60
00:04:19.340 --> 00:04:25.620
by others, and in which no other means of self-defense offered, he, as a matter of necessity,

61
00:05:25.620 --> 00:05:27.620
The Theory of Money and Credit

62
00:05:55.620 --> 00:06:08.620
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.

63
00:06:08.620 --> 00:06:10.500
4.

64
00:06:10.500 --> 00:06:15.660
As taxation is made compulsory on all, whether they vote or not, a large proportion of those

65
00:06:15.660 --> 00:06:20.940
who vote no doubt do so to prevent their own money being used against themselves, when

66
00:06:20.940 --> 00:06:25.860
in fact they would have gladly abstained from voting if they could thereby have saved themselves

67
00:06:25.860 --> 00:06:31.700
from taxation alone, to say nothing of being saved from all the other usurpations and tyrannies

68
00:06:31.700 --> 00:06:33.480
of the government.

69
00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:38.260
To take a man's property without his consent, and then to infer his consent because he

70
00:06:38.260 --> 00:06:44.820
The attempts by voting to prevent that property from being used to his injury is a very insufficient

71
00:06:44.820 --> 00:06:48.500
proof of his consent to support the Constitution.

72
00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:51.160
It is, in fact, no proof at all.

73
00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:55.940
And as we can have no legal knowledge as to who the particular individuals are, if there

74
00:06:55.940 --> 00:07:00.800
are any who are willing to be taxed for the sake of voting, we can have no legal knowledge

75
00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:06.980
that any particular individual consents to being taxed for the sake of voting, or consequently

76
00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:12.080
Consents to Support the Constitution 5.

77
00:07:12.080 --> 00:07:17.800
At nearly all elections, votes are given for various candidates for the same office.

78
00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:22.780
Those who vote for the unsuccessful candidates cannot properly be said to have voted to sustain

79
00:07:22.780 --> 00:07:24.500
the Constitution.

80
00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:29.780
They may, with more reason, be supposed to have voted not to support the Constitution,

81
00:07:29.780 --> 00:07:34.380
but specially to prevent the tyranny which they anticipate the successful candidate intends

82
00:07:34.380 --> 00:08:00.780
6. Many votes are usually given for candidates who have no prospect of success. Those who

83
00:08:00.780 --> 00:08:26.780
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.

84
00:08:26.780 --> 00:08:42.280
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.

85
00:08:42.280 --> 00:08:53.780
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.

86
00:08:53.780 --> 00:09:00.780
8. There being no legal proof of any man's intentions in voting, we can only conjecture them.

87
00:09:00.780 --> 00:09:07.780
As a conjecture, it is probable that a very large proportion of those who vote do so on this principle.

88
00:09:07.780 --> 00:09:19.780
That is, 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.

89
00:09:19.780 --> 00:09:24.780
But if their opponents are to have the power and use it against them, then they would not

90
00:09:24.780 --> 00:09:27.620
willingly support the Constitution.

91
00:09:27.620 --> 00:09:34.220
In short, men's voluntary support of the Constitution is doubtless, in most cases, wholly contingent

92
00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:39.580
upon the question whether by means of the Constitution they can make themselves masters

93
00:09:39.580 --> 00:09:42.020
or are to be made slaves.

94
00:09:42.020 --> 00:09:47.780
Such contingent consent as that is in law and reason, no consent at all.

95
00:09:47.780 --> 00:09:49.320
9.

96
00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:54.600
As everybody who supports the Constitution by voting, if there are any such, does so

97
00:09:54.600 --> 00:10:00.400
secretly by secret ballot, and in way to avoid all personal responsibility for the act of

98
00:10:00.400 --> 00:10:06.020
its agents or representatives, it cannot legally or reasonably be said that anybody at all

99
00:10:06.020 --> 00:10:09.180
supports the Constitution by voting.

100
00:10:09.180 --> 00:10:14.460
No man can reasonably or legally be said to do such a thing as to assent to or support

101
00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:21.100
the Constitution, unless he does it openly and in a way to make himself personally responsible

102
00:10:21.100 --> 00:10:26.300
for the acts of his agents, so long as they act within the limits of the power he delegates

103
00:10:26.300 --> 00:10:27.620
to them.

104
00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:28.620
10.

105
00:10:28.620 --> 00:10:33.580
As all voting is secret by secret ballot, and as all secret governments are necessarily

106
00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:39.240
only secret bands of robbers, tyrants and murderers, the general fact that our government

107
00:10:39.240 --> 00:10:44.340
is practically carried on by means of such voting only proves that there is among us

108
00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:50.220
is a secret band of robbers, tyrants and murderers, whose purpose is to rob and slave and, so

109
00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:55.580
far as necessary to accomplish their purposes, murder the rest of the people.

110
00:10:55.580 --> 00:11:00.260
The simple fact of the existence of such a band does nothing towards proving that the

111
00:11:00.260 --> 00:11:07.080
people of the United States, or any one of them, voluntarily supports the Constitution.

112
00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:11.860
For all the reasons that have now been given, voting furnishes no legal evidence as to

113
00:11:11.860 --> 00:11:17.460
to who the particular individuals are, if there are any, who voluntarily support the

114
00:11:17.460 --> 00:11:18.540
Constitution.

115
00:11:18.540 --> 00:11:23.460
It therefore furnishes no legal evidence that anybody supports it voluntarily.

116
00:11:23.460 --> 00:11:29.080
So far, therefore as voting is concerned, the Constitution, legally speaking, has no

117
00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:31.020
supporters at all.

118
00:11:31.020 --> 00:11:35.340
And as a matter of fact, there is not the slightest probability that the Constitution

119
00:11:35.340 --> 00:11:38.700
has a single bona fide supporter in the country.

120
00:11:38.700 --> 00:11:43.080
That is to say, there is not the slightest probability that there is a single man in

121
00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:48.640
the country who both understands what the Constitution really is and sincerely supports

122
00:11:48.640 --> 00:11:51.960
it for what it really is.

123
00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:57.360
The ostensible supporters of the Constitution, like the ostensible supporters of most other

124
00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:03.560
governments, are made up of three classes, that is, one, NAVES, a numerous and active

125
00:12:03.560 --> 00:12:08.480
class who see in the government an instrument which they can use for their own aggrandizement

126
00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:09.480
or Wealth.

127
00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:10.480
2.

128
00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:11.480
Dupes.

129
00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:16.040
A large class, no doubt, each of whom, because he is allowed one voice out of millions in

130
00:12:16.040 --> 00:12:20.900
deciding what he may do with his own person and his own property, and because he is permitted

131
00:12:20.900 --> 00:12:25.700
to have the same voice in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in

132
00:12:25.700 --> 00:12:31.760
robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine that he is a free

133
00:12:31.760 --> 00:12:38.460
man, a sovereign, that this is a free government, a government of equal rights, the best government

134
00:12:38.460 --> 00:12:45.540
on Earth and such like absurdities, a class who have some appreciation of the evils of

135
00:12:45.540 --> 00:12:51.500
government but either do not see how to get rid of them or do not choose to so far sacrifice

136
00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:56.660
their private interests as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of making

137
00:12:56.660 --> 00:12:57.340
Making a Change.