VI

Irresponsible Power Derived from the Pretended "Constitution"

It is no exaggeration, but a literal truth, to say that, by the pretended "constitution" - not as I interpret it, but as it is interpreted by those who pretend to "administer" it - the properties, liberties, and lives of the entire people of the supposed "United States" are surrendered unreservedly into the hands of men who, it is provided by the pretended "constitution" itself, shall never be "questioned" as to any disposal they make of them. Thus the pretended "constitution" (Art. I, Sec. 6) provides that, "for any speech or debate (or vote), in either house, they (the pretended "senators" and "representatives") shall not be questioned in any other place." The whole pretended "law-making power" is given to these pretended "senators" and "representatives" (when acting by a two-thirds vote - and this two-thirds vote may be but two-thirds of a quorum; that is, two-thirds of a majority, instead of two-thirds of the whole); and this provision protects them from all responsibility for the pretended "laws" they make.

The pretended "constitution" also enables them to secure the execution of all their supposed "laws," by giving them power to withhold the salaries of, and to impeach and remove, all "judicial and executive officers," who refuse to execute them. Thus the whole power of the gang of tyrants, robbers, and murderers who masquerade as "government" is in their hands, and they are made utterly irresponsible for the use they make of it. What is this but absolute, irresponsible power?

It is no answer to this view of the case to say that these men are under pretended "oath" to use their power only within certain limits; for what care they, or what should they care, for pretended "oaths" and limits, when it is expressly provided in the pretended "constitution" itself, that they shall never be "questioned," or held to any responsibility whatever, for violating their pretended "oaths," or transgressing those limits.

Neither is it any answer to this view of the case to say that the particular individuals holding this irresponsible power can be changed once in two or six years; for the power of each set of men is absolute during the term for which they hold it; and when they can hold it no longer, they are succeeded only by men whose power will be equally absolute and irresponsible.

Neither is it any answer to this view of the case to say that the men holding this absolute, irresponsible power, must be men chosen by the people (or portions of them) to hold it. A man is nonetheless a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. Neither are a people any the less slaves because they are permitted to periodically choose new masters. What makes them slaves is the fact that they now are, and are always hereafter to be, in the hands of men whose power over them is, and always is to be, absolute and irresponsible. And of what appreciable value is it to any man, as an individual, that he is allowed a voice in choosing these public masters? His voice is only one of several millions.

The right of absolute and irresponsible dominion is the right of property, and the right of property is the right of absolute, irresponsible dominion. The two are identical; the one necessarily implying the other. Neither can exist without the other. If, therefore, the individuals who pretend to constitute the pretended "congress," have the absolute and irresponsible "law-making power," which the pretended "constitution" - according to their interpretation of it - gives them, it can only be because they own us as property. If they own us as property, they are our masters, and their will is our "law." If they do not own us as property, they are not our masters, and their will, as such, is of no "authority" over us.

But these men who claim and exercise this absolute and irresponsible dominion over us, dare not be consistent, and claim either to be our masters, or to own us as property. They say they are only our servants, agents, attorneys, and representatives. But this declaration involves an absurdity, a contradiction. No man can be my servant, agent, attorney, or representative, and be, at the same time, uncontrollable by me, and irresponsible to me for his acts. It is of no importance that I appointed him, and put all power in his hands. If I made him uncontrollable by me, and irresponsible to me, he is no longer my servant, agent, attorney, or representative. If I gave him absolute, irresponsible power over my property, I gave him the property. If I gave him absolute, irresponsible power over myself, I made him my master, and gave myself to him as a slave. And it is of no importance whether I called him master or servant, owner or agent. The only question is, what power did I put into his hands? Was it an absolute and irresponsible one? or a limited and responsible one?

For still another reason they are neither our servants, agents, attorneys, or representatives. And that reason is, that we do not make ourselves responsible for their acts. If a man is my servant, agent, or attorney, I necessarily make myself responsible for all his acts done within the limits of the power I have entrusted to him. If I have entrusted him, as my agent, with either absolute power, or any power at all, over the persons or properties of other men than myself, I thereby necessarily make myself responsible to those other persons for any injuries he may do them, so long as he acts within the limits of the power I have granted him. But no individual who may be injured in his person or property by the acts of the individuals who pretend to constitute the pretended "congress," can come to the individual electors, and hold them responsible for these acts of their pretended agents or representatives. This fact proves that these pretended agents of the people, of everybody, are really the agents of nobody.

If, then, nobody is individually responsible for the acts of the members who pretend to constitute the pretended "congress," then these members are nobody's agents. And if they are nobody's agents, they are themselves individually responsible for their own acts, and for the acts of all whom they employ. And the "authority" they are exercising is simply their own individual "authority"; and, by the law of nature - the highest of all laws - anybody injured by their acts, anybody who is deprived by them of his property or his liberty, has the same right to hold them individually responsible, that he has to hold any other trespasser individually responsible. He has the same right to resist them, and their agents, that he has to resist any other trespassers or offenders.

Next - Pretended "Authority" of the Pretended "Constitution"