THE PRESENTMENT. "Ye build! ye build, but ye enter not in, Like the tribes whom the desert devoured in their sin; "Who would be free, Themselves must strike the blow." TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. The time has now come when all true men and women can move forward in one unbroken line, vindicating and protecting their natural rights as set forth in the Declaration of Independence. Your interests are indentical, your opportunities for action are free and ample, and your duties are plain and imperative. A confederation of corporations has usurped the sovereign functions of this government, and exercises them for its sole use and benefit, thereby resolving it into an oligarchy. The many are made to serve the few. Industry is made to enrich idleness. Capital created by labor has gained complete control over it, and holds it in its relentless grasp. We declare that the principles upon which this government was founded have been ignored and superseded by a system whose essential features are borrowed from the British Govern. ment. Instead of equality, we have class distinctions founded on wealth. Instead of a medium of circulation to carry on the industries of the country by equal exchange and equitable distribution, we have a limited currency controlled by corporations for their special benefit. Instead of a system of land tenure that would secure homes for the people, we have a land monopoly already grown to an alarming extent, and still increasing. Instead of fair and equitable rates for transportation and travel, we have ruinous discriminations, and extortion beyond all reason, justice, or precedent. Instead of labor controlling its own interests, and regulating its relations to capital, it is, by aggressive avarice and relentless tyranny, trampled upon, the rights of laboring men and women ignored, and they are being reduced to hopeless poverty and servile dependence upon it. Instead of honest representation and faithful public service, we have a system of political machinery that manipulates nominating conven tions, secures the election of their candidates, and by lobbying and bribery controls the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the government. As a consequence of these unjust measures and usurped powers, the vast majority of the people are made to pay tribute to the few, whereby immense wealth accumulates in their hands, by which class distinctions are built up, and aristocracies are founded at the cost of the wealth producer. There is no good reason why any should be compelled to long and monotonous labor; to toil without recompense, save that of a bare subsistence, a condition that deadens stimulus, and banishes all expectation and aspiration for anything higher than to be the sons and daughters of incessant toil. To liberate yourselves from the tyranny of capital, to break the bonds that enslave you, to strike off the fetters imposed by the bandit-chiefs of the Stock and Grain Exchange, and the robber-leaders who organize parties into machines, is your work. Let us demand Justice that secures Equality; Equality that secures Liberty; Liberty that secures Happiness; for Happiness is the end and aim of human existence. THE NEW REPUBLIC. CHAPTER I. DEFINITIONS. ""Tis coming up the steeps of time, And this old world is growing brighter; We yet may see its dawn sublime, For high hopes make the heart throb lighter." GOVERNMENT in the sense of political science is an agreement, expressed or implied, to conform to certain regulations by a body of people having common interests and a common country. It is based on man's social nature and mutual wants; and has for its object the regulation and protection of its citizens in the full and free exercise of their natural rights, privileges, and opportunities. Some uniformity and concert of action, some common sentiment finding expression in law and the various institutions of a country, are indispensable to the very existence of society. This |