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PAGE TWO
These Are Your Lawful Rights
(continued from page one.)
It is a discredit to us, that every school
room does not familiarize every pupil with
these simple and precious rights of citizen
ship.
THE PEOPLE ARE THE SOURCE OF SUPREME
POWER !
In the first place, you do not derive your
rights from any government: on the con
trary. the State and Federal governments de
rive their rights from you.
Your rights come to you from Nature and
nature’s Creator; and, just as the right to
live, to labor, and to enjoy the fruit of your
toil, comes to you nuZ/rrcZZy, so does your
right to meet your fellow mortals in con
ference, for the purpose of forming a govern
ment.
The people changed the government and
laws of our Mother Country, in England; ami
the people, on this side of the ocean, first made
State governments, and then made three
different Federal governments.
The one now existing, is the third; and you
have just as much sovereign power to assem
ble yourselves in a constitutional convention,
and create a fourth Federal government, as
those Americans, who were citizens of the
second Federal government, had. to meet at
Philadelphia In 1787, and form a third.
Indeed. L do not believe that the States of
this Union could do a wiser tiling, right now,
than to hold another Constitutional Conven
tion, for the express purpose of setting defi
nite limits to the continual encroachments of
the central power.
THE STATE BILL OF RIGHTS.
As framed by General Toombs, Charles J.
Jenkins and the other statesmen of 1877, the
Constitution of Georgia—which is about the
same of those of other States—'declares that
“all government, of right, originates with the
people, 65 founded on tdteir will, only, and is
instituted solely for the good of the whole.
Public officers are the trustees and servants
of the people, and at all times amenable to
them."
Then comes the enumeration of the civic
rights which must not be impaired by legisla
tures.
Trial by jury, free speech, free press, reli
gious liberty; security of life, liberty, ami
property; sanctity of the home from searah,
without a warrant based on an affidavit; no
man to be put on trial unless indicted by the
grand jury, the write of Habeas Corpus not
to be suspended, no involuntary servitude to
exist, ami the civil authority to be superior
to the military.
Added to these, is that Right of Petition
which was established in the Old Country in
1688:
"The people have the right to assemble
peaceably for their common good, and to ap
ply io those vested with the powers of gov
ernment for redress of grievances, by petition
or remonstrance.*’
THE FEDERAL BILL OF RIGHTS.
As originally written and ratified, the Con
stitution of the United States did not contain
a Bill ol Rights, because those rights were
so generally understood, that it was con
sidered unnecessary to specify them.
But, fortunately John Hancock and many
others thought that these undoubted rights
would be safer, if they were put in writing.
Consequently, they were added to the Con
stitution by Amendments.
In brief, Congress is prohibited from mak
ing any law about religion, or any law which
will lessen free speech, free press, or the peo-
THE JEFFERSONIAN
pie’s right to peaceably assemble and to peti
tion the government for redress of wrongs.
Your dwelling is made sacred from
entrance and search, unless by warrant, based
upon affidavit, describing the house, and
particularly describing the thing that the
search is to be made for.
(That hnv is being shamefully violated
throughout the Union, and especially in
Georgia under the asinine Felder law, w’hich
was used as a cloak to hide the grabbing of
our State Railroad by the L. & N.)
The U. S. Constitution further provides,
that “no person shall be put on trial, for a
capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless
on a presentment or indictment of a grand
jury.”
Yet. men are being nabbed and imprisoned,
without warrant, all over the country, on
hysterical charges of treason and sedition.
The Supreme Law further provides, that
no person shall be deprived of life, liberty,
or property, without “due process of law 7 ."
The universal construction of the words,
“due process of law,” is, legal arrest, legal
indictment, trial by jury, and conviction, by
the unanimous verdict of twelve of the de
fendants equals.
Yet, men are forced to leave their work to
register themselves, in order that they may be
hereafter deprived of their liberty, by Act of
Congress!
In its broad grant of power, to protect the
Negro, the Federal government assumed, un
der the 14th Amendment, those powers which
have been such a boon to the big corporations.
The same breadth of construction given to
the 13th Amendment, protects, not only the
Negro, but the Whites.
"Neither slavery wor involuntary servitude
. . . . shall exist within the United States
. . . . except as a punishment for crime.”
When the Negro is Conscripted, and held
to service in the Army, why isn't it “involun
tarv servitude?”
When a white man, not accused of crime,
is held against his will in the Army, what
keeps if from being “involuntary servitude?”
Nothing does. It is involuntary servitude,
and it is in the teeth of the Supreme Law 7 .
THE PEACEABLE REMEDIES.
If mass meeting w’ere held throughout the
Union, and public sentiment expressed
against the usurpatory Act of Congress, the
men who are guilty of voting for it will
make amends to their betrayed constituents,
6?/ voting to repeal it.
The army and navy which can be created
by the volunteers who have enlisted, and who
are still enlisting, are quite large enough for
any legitimate, rational purpose.
There was never any necessity for this hur
ried Conscription Act.
No enemy is approaching our soil; not a
soldier from Europe will ever put foot on
American dirt.
Land troops cannot cope with the German
U-boats: our Navy must see to that, and. it
will!
These mass-meetings, if spontaneous and
general, will do far more to move the govern
ment from its illegal policy, than test cases
brought against the new law.
But those cases should be brought, in every
State. One is pending in Missouri, and by
the time this paper reaches you, others will
probably be filed.
Os course, each case affects the conscripts
involved in that particular case, only; and
the progress of the Conscript Act would not
bo stayed as to other victims, unless Congress
yields to popular pressure.
Those who voted for this revolutionary and
Prussianized militarism, will have to face
their angry constituents, next year; and if
they can be convinced, now, that their votes
will cause their defeat next year, they won’t
wait for the primaries.
They will put themselves right with their
people, now.
But of course, if nobody demonstrates to
the Congressmen that the daily papers, and
the weekly wig-wags, and the war-paint
preachers, are 'misrepresenting public opinion,
those Congressmen won’t know until next
Summer how 7 much wrath is burning against
them on account of that tyrannical new law.
JAMES MADISON AND ALEXANDER HAMILTON
BOTH SUSTAIN MY POSITION !
After the new Constitution of 1787 had
been completed, and was being examined by
the people, two of its makers, assisted by
Chief Justice John Jay, published a series of
articles urging the States to ratify.
These articles were put in book form, and
the volume goes by the name of “The Feder
alist.”
In looking over it, last Sunday morning, I
found, to my natural gratification, that both
Hamilton and Madison had made—more than
100 years ago—the same argument that
I had made, against a standing army
in time of peace, to-wit, that such an
abuse could never come upon us, be
cause Congress is forbidden to make an ap
propriation for more than tw 7 o years when
the purpose is “to raise and support armies.”
Section 8, of the U. S. Constitution is as
plain as possible—-
“The Congress shall have power .... to
raise and support armies, but no appropria
tion of money to that use shall be for a longer,
term than two years.”
Could language be stronger and more
easily understood?
Madison and Hamilton both argue in The
Federalist, that this clause w 7 as meant to safe
guard the people against a standing army in
time of peace, and to keep that subject under
the control of the people.
(See The Federalist, numbers XXIV.,
XXV. and XXVI..)
Mr. Hamilton's authority is so high among
those who believe in “a strong government,”
that I venture to quote a few lines from Num
ber XXVI.:
“The legislature of the United States will
be obliged, by this provision (the 2 year
clause) at least once in every tw’o years, to
deliberate upon the propriety of keeping a
military force on foot; to come to a new reso
lution on the point; and to declare their sense
of the matter, by a formal vote in the face of
t heir co ns t ituents.
They are not at liberty to vest in the exe
cutive department, permanent funds for the
support of an army.”
Here we have a great lawyer, a great states
man, and one of the makers of the Constitu
tion, saying emphatically, that Congress has
no authority to make an army appropriation
for longer than tw’o years, no authority to
create a permanent military fund!
Yet, the 30 year bond issue of two thousand
million dollars—if I understand the matter
at all—is meant to give the executive a per
manent fund for the support of an army !
If the plain w’ords of Section 8 of the Con
stitution do not mean what they say, why
were they put there?
If they do mean what they say, why are
the officials, who swore to support them,
EVADING THEM ?
What greater revolution can there be, than
that of public servants, oath-bound to de
fend the law, who change themselves into au
tocrats, and violate the law 7 ?
Watson’s Books on in
Atlanta anl Macon.
A complete line of Thos. E. Wa'son’s books are
on sale at Miller's Book Store, in Atlanta; also at
Macon, with Brown's Book Store. People in those
cities and vicinity would do well to call and look
them over. Jeffersonian Publishing Co.
Thursday, June 14, 1917<