Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1840-11-27
"TIIE PEOPLES OWN BOOK"
CHAPTER VIII.

lie PEOILES Wv n BUM"
CHAPTER VIII.
You, who bear the burthcns of the day, men
Of toll and of sorrow, poor dsinherited children
of this fruitful and beautiful earth,-when all
awakening nature greets the approaching morn
with smiles, when the little birds, shaking their
dew besprinked wings, MARBLE upon the branch
es the hymn Of joy that is murmurcd by the in
sect in the grass,-why this sadness on your
countenance, this silence on your lips! Why
does not the soft light, opening like heavenly
flower, and spreading from the east, forever dis
sipa'e the clouds upon your brow!
The bee has it hive to which it can retire, but
you have no as ,ium that you can call your own T.;
the mite has its garment of silk for protection
against the cold, hut your limbs are naked; UNI
der its native plat the meanest worm finds shell
ter and nourshmen', bat you want both.
1t is not that Providence has been more unkind
to you but that man has taken from YOU what
God has given. What is left to you of tina,
which He has lavishly bestowed on all
Your evils, once more, spring from the vices
Of society, diverted from its natural end by the
sclf>l,ness Of the few; nor will your condition
ever improve SO long as they alone make the
laws. If you had any thing to hope from them
if they honestly desired and sought but the great
est good Of all, would they elevate themselves
above all Would they reserve to themselves
the exclusive administration of the affairs of all
Is it from zeal for your interests! Is it for
themselves or for you, for their advantage or for
yours, that they demand power! If for theirs,
whence and by what title is this privilege! If for
yours, it must then be because they Judge you
incapable of discerning for yourselves that which
good or evil. In their opinion, then, you are
brutes.
We are all children of the same Father, who
is God and the common Father has not sub
jected brothers to brothers he has not said to
| one Command and to the other: Obey To
each other they owe mutual aid and succour
justice and charity, nothing more and society
which has been rendered so burdensome TO a
large proportion of the human race by insensate
and disorder'y passions, is in its essence, and
ought in fact to be, nothing more than union
| of forces and wills for the more certain attain.
ment of the end OF existence, nothing more than
| the organization Of fraternity.
Were there kings, mobiles, patricans, and pie
bians before there were people and if the peo-
pie, free and equal, existed previously to all dis.
tnctons, then all distinctions if not the fruit OF
violence and robbery, are derived from the PEG.
pie, from their independent will, and impersh.
able sovereignty. Nothing legitimate can come
from any other source Patrician dignity, nobil.
ity, royalty in aword, all prerogative that claims
to be self derived and independent of the will
and sovereignty Of the people, is an encroach.
ment upon society, revolutionary usurpation
a germ of tyranny.
The people make no classes create no priv.
eges; they delegate duties, they coniide some
functions to these, some to those they charge
their functonares with the execution of thei,
decisions, of that which they have determined
for the common good, accordin. to the funda
mental laws which they have established ant
retain to themselves the power to modify.
liypocrtes, who call yourselves christians
open the christian law, and there you will read
"The princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion
over them and they that are great exercise
authority upon them. But it shall not be 8,
among you: but whomsoever will be grea
among you, let him be your minister; and who
soever will be chief among you, let him be you
servant"
1t is on the contrary your right that no on,
govern you' that no one impose laws upon yo,
at his pleasure; that the laws enanate from yo,
alone that the depository of public power exer
else simple revocablc office; that he be YOU
serram, and nothing more.