Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-06-26

uou Independent.
The Farmers Declaration of Indepen.
dence."
fsuoeested by the Executive Committee OF the
uhinois state Farmers Association.
When in the course of human events it be-
comes necessary for a class Of people, suffer-
inc from long-continued systems OF oppression
and abuse, to rouse themselves from an
anatbetic Indifference to their own interests,
which has become habitual; to assume among
their fellow-citizens that equal station, and de-
mand from the Government they support those
ooual rights. to which the laws of nature and
~ NATURES God entities them; decent respect
for the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes that impel them to q
course SO necessary to their own protection.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalien-
able rights; that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure
these rights governments are instituted among
men, deriving their Just powers from the con-
sent of the governed; that whenever the
powers of government become destructive OF
these ends, either through the injustice or in
efficiency of its laws, or through the corrup-
tion of it's administrators, it is the right of the
people to abolish such laws, and to institute
such reforms as to them shall seem most likely
TO effect their safety and happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that laws long established
shall not be changed for light and trifing
causes, and, accordingly, all experience hath
shown that mankind are more disposed to
suffer while evils are siderable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the laws to which
tbey are accustomed. But when a long train
of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invari-
ably the same object, evinces desire to re-
duce people under the absolute despotism
of combinations that, under the fostering care
of Government and with wealth wrung from
the people, have grown to such gigantic pro-
portions as to overshadOw all the land, and
WELD an almost irresistible influence for their
own selfish purposes, in all its halls of legisla-
ton, it is their right-itis their duty-to throw
off such tyranny, and provide new guards for
their future security,
Such has been the patient sufferance of the
producing classes of these States, and such is
now the necessity which compels them to de-
clare that they will use every means, save a
resort to arms, to overthrow this despotism OF
monopoly, and to reduce all men claiming the
protection Of American laws to an equality be-
fore those laws, making the owner of a rail
road as amenable thereto as the ''veriest beg
gar that walks the streets, the sun and air his
sole inheritance.
The history of the present railway monopoly
is a history Of repeated injuries and oppres-
sions, all having in direct object the establish
ment of an absolute tyranny over the people
of these States unequaled in any monarchy of
the Old World, and having its only parallel in
the history of the medieval ages, when the
strong hand was the only law, and the high
ways Of commerce were taxed by the Feudal
Barons, who, from their strongholds, sur
rounded by their armies of vassals, could levy
such tribute upon the traveller as their own
wills alone should dictate. To prove this, let
facts be submitted to candid world:
They have Influenced our executive officers
to refuse their assent to laws the most whole
some and necessary for the public good, and
when such laws have been passed they have
utterly refused to obey them.
They have procured the passage Of other
laws, for their own benefit alone, by which
they have put untold millions into their own
Golfers, to the injury of the entire commercial
and industrial interests of the country.
They have influenced legislation to suit
themselves, by bribing venal legislators to be-
tray the true interests of their constituents,
while others have been kept quiet by the COM
plment of free passes.
They have repeatedly prevented the re-elec-
ton of representatives for opposing with man
ly frmness their invasions of the peoples
rights.
They have by false representations and sub
terfuge induced the people TO subscribe funds
to build roads, whose rates when built, are
90 exorbitant that in many instances trans
portation by private conveyances is less bur-
densome.
They have procured charters by which they
condemn and appropriate our lands without
adequate compensation therefor, and arrogant
~ claim that by virtue of these charters they
are absolutely above the control Of legal enact
ments.
They have procured law of Congress by
which they have dispossessed hundreds OF
farmers of the homes that by years of toll
they have built up; have induced others to
mortgage their farms for roads never intended
70 be built, and after squanderlng the money
thus obtained, they have left their victims to
The mercy of courts over which they held alb
solute sway.
They have Obstructed the administration Of
Justice by injunctions, procured from yenal
judges, by legal bubbles, and appeals, from
court to court, with intent to wear out or ruin
nation to make it so terrible for the public to
prosecute them that they will not dare to un-
dertake it,
They have virtually made Judges dependent
IN their will alone, and have procured their ap-
pointment for the express purpose OF revers-
ng decision of the highest court of the ma
ton, by which millions were gained to them,
~ TIC INJURY OK the nOlucTs u their DOQUs anu
The breaking down of this last safeguard Of
freemen.
They have affected to render themselves in
dependent of and superior to the civil power,
BY ordering large bodies Of hirelings to en-
force their unlawful exactions, and have pro-
Iected them from punishment for any injury
hey might infiict upon peaceful citizens while
s]ecting them from their conveyances for re-
[using TO pay more than the rate of fare pre-
'cribed by law.
/, They have arrested and summoned from
'neir homes for trial, at distant points, other
itizens for the same offense of refusing to pay
more than the legal fare, putting them to as
:reat Inconvenience rs possible, and still fur
her evincing their determination to make it
90 terrible for the people to dare engage in
my legal conflict with them.
They have combined together to destroy
competitions; contrary to the expressed pro-
'isions OF our Constitution and the spirit Of
,dr laws.
;. They have virtually cut Oh our trade with
parts OF the world by their unjust dis
and by their exorbitant rates Of
reight, forcing upon us the alternative Of &C
'umuiating upon our hands worthless sur
plus, or OF giving three-fourths Of the price