The Labor enquirer., 1883-09-29
&aa DENVER, COLORADO SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 49,

lent to the one who did produce it. This
rule can have no exceptions, save those
created by the unanimous consent of all
members of society. ,
"a b XII. RI s1EElJf/
| So long as members of society shallful
I'LL their portion of the social contract
they have right to demand Of society
that itproyides to them the means nee
essary to provide for their subsistence.
Society is bound also to insure the p1eans,
Of existence to those who are incapable
! of labor.
Absolute justice is the. right aof every
being. The law is the free and solemn
expression of the publ will and it must
be equal for all. Socisty ought to favor
with allits powerfse progress of public
reason, and place Instruction and recre-
alton within ths reach of.every citizen.
The people is me sovereign. Govern.
ment is its work and its property the
public functionafies are its agents and
officers, and the people justly should have
the power when it pleases to revoke its
mandatories or recall its servants. The
law can forbid only what is hurtful to
the people, and prescribe only what is
useful. Every law which violates or in
fringes the imprescriptible rights of man
is void.
In every just government the law
ought above all to defend public and in
dividual liberty against the authority of
those that govern. Every institution
that does not suppose the people good
and the magistrate corruptible is vicious.
No part of the people can exercise the
power of the whole people but the wish
it expresses ought to be respected as a
wish of part of the people which is to
concur in forming the general will
Every act against the impreseriptible
rights of man by whomsoeyer exercised,
even in the name of the law itself and
within the forms it prescribes-every
such act is arbitrary and VOID. The very
respect due to law forbids submission to
it, and if the attempt be made to exc
cute such act by violence or by artltice,
it is not only permitted but eToined
upon every individual to repel such as
sault even by force. Resistance to op-
preston is a necessary consequence of
the other rights of man. There is op-
preston against the social body When
ever one alone of its members is op-
pressed There is oppression against
every member of it when the social
body is oppressed When the govern
.ment violates the rights of the people,
insurrection is for the people and for
every portion of the people the most
sacred of rights and the most indispen-
sible of duties. When the social con-
tract fails to protect a citizen he resumes
his natural right to defend personally all
his rights. In either of the two preced-
ing cases, to subject to legal forms the
resistance to oppression is the last re-
fnement of tyranny, and is both infa-
nous and void.
XIV.
Public functions cannot be considered
as distinctions nor as recOmpenses, but
as public duties. The people ought as
far as possible to govern themselves with
out the interposition of delegates or rep
resentatives, But when these repre-
sentatives are necessary they must be
selected by such a system as will insure
their being real and not pretended mi
crocOsms of their constituents. The
crimes of such representatives should be
severely punished. The people have a
right to know the operations of their
delegates, and it is the duty of the latter
to render to the people faithful account
of their behaviors.
XVI.
Men of all countries are brothers, and
the people of each ought to yield one
another mutual aid, according to their
ability, like citizens of. the same state.
He who opposes or oppresses one peo-
pie is the declared enemy of all. Those
who make war on people to arrest the
progress of liberty and to annihilate' the
rights of man, ought to be pursued
everywhere, not as ordinary criminals,
but as social outlaws, assassins and
robbers. Kings, aristocrats, tyrants OF
every description are beasts dangerous
to the welfare of mankind, and against
them should be raised the hand of every
man.
XVII
The conditions which will establish
universal happiness upon earth consist
in the free enjoyment Of the natural
rights of man, c9Rhjna 11fR the exef- exc
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manity. mere Win arrive time, il