The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-02-17
THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.
SopUS. n. Y, Feb. /, 1872.

SopUS, n. ", Feb. /, 1872.
The time for the meeting Of the Nationa
Labor Union, to declare their principle
ana nominate candidates for the Presidency
and Vice Presidency to represent them, j
now near at hand Thousands that vii
not be represented BY delegates i'll that con
vrntiun. nur are even enrolled in " LaEol
Mons. viii anxiously await the result N
us deliberations and doings, i'll the ardent
hope they may be characterized by wisdom
and energy adequate to the emergency
Pecuuiary distress, poverty and pauperisn
and social Generalization are on the IN
crease, and IN a country stored by the Crea
tor with the elements Of human happmes,
m buundleSs prutusion. and under gov
eminent that boasts a % declaration" Of
liberty ana equality, while over forty leg
islatures are annually heaping upmultitudi-
nous volumes ~ statutes enacting. amend
Jng and repeating. till no one knows what
they all are, vet the situation IS becoming
alarmingly worse.
There must he something radically wrong
III our system Of government. If the Con
vention about to meet will institute sci
cnti6c scrutiny into the fundamental prin-
ciples Of government, point out i'll the
workings Of the existing arrangements, the
causes Of the social disturbances, without
Difference to popular delusions, and from a
platform IF scientific principles, such as
would be respected ~ the thoughtful, the
cause viii triumph, and the DIST Of Feb.
1872, become memorable in the annals Of
social progress. But if the Convention. as
ali its predecessors have done frame time
inmtnorial, appeal to the vanity Of the pop
tlace. and promise the enactment into laws,
= set of empirical measures that to the ig-
uorant and uGthinklng seem plausible, sue
cess viii be Indefinitely delayed
In Convention of Reformers there will
always be more or less whose zeal will he
Ia excess Of their sagacity Some will in
slst that the party shall be pledged t.
temperance, forgetting that intemperance
IS an effect rather cause Of the socicl dis
turbance imputed to it. Others may clam
Or for female suffrage The harmonious
workings of the social mechanism 10 not
essentially depend on any suffrage at all
they are even possible under an autocrat
When government operates to produce a
condition Of things Ill cOnsonance with the
needs and aspirations of humanity, all these
evils, that the aid Of women is invoked t.
Danish, will disappear inevitably, and 50
through the whole list Of specific measures
If reform.
Man will be universally quoted into viz
tue and subordination to law, when all are
fully supplied with means necessary for the
improvement and development that God
has made them capable of, and He has con
nected, with that capability, an .impelling
desire. Those means are wealth The de-
sire for wealth is, therefore, legitimate ;
the constant irritation produced by being
deprived Of it, weakens the moral forces,
and crime becomes commensurate with pow
erty. The fact that the Creator has sup
Piled only the elements of wealth, is signiti-
cant Of the further fact, that the exercise of
his intellect, to convert those elements into
wealth, is essential to healthy growth and
development Of his intellectual and moral
faculties. The first essential then in ele-
waiting mankind to higher civilization and
happiness, IS wealth. Such are the relations
Of man to man, and the reciprocal relations
nf the arts that the production Of wealth
and its equitable distribution, can only be
effected by civic arrangements Govern
ments, then, are not dependent on the
consent of the governed" for existence, but
are the spontaneous result of an imperious
necessity
There exists profound misapprehension
IN regard to the origin Of governments in
their natural prerogatives. Garrit Smith.
who claims to represent advanced thinkers
and reformers, says their only object is .
" 70 protect persons and property" The
same sentiment, differently expressed. is
that commonly entertained and claimed To
he the only one CONSTANT with liberty
"a power to coerce the turbulent, while
every provocation to turbulence is present
ed. To elucidate their true origin and Oh
Iect, let it be considered that the Creator
has invested every human being with the
sovereign right to adjudge his own grew
ances, and redress his own wrongs, and to
the exclusive possession of all he creates
"A right corresponding with defence in the
lower animals. But as the exercise Of the
right, in society, would be fatal. each alien
ates his individual sovereignty to constitute
a national sovereignty, which becomes the
aggregate of individual sovereignities and
Of which the individual the epitome. II
will noticeable that the rights are alienated
the Declaration of Independence to the
contrary. If they were only delegated
they might be withdrawn at will. The
alienation, furthermore, is involuntary, for
the government assumes guardianship over
the citizen in infancy, and even before birth.
This relation Of the citizen to the national
sovereignty, is important, as determining
his rights under it, as well as his duties.
In this view the injustice of the govern
ment indeed, its crlminality, in parting with
its sovereign prerogatives, by comforting
exclusive rights and privileges upon in
dividuals oECorDorations will be apparent
There may be deduced, also, this important
principle that it is its natural prerogative
to do anything that will subserve the in
terests of each and all citizens equally.
Our government conducts the postal service
on that principle Then why not the tele-
graph and the currency, and control the
great thOroughfares of travel and transpor-
tation.