The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-07
thank you for your kind attention.
HON. IGNATIUs DoNNELLY

l thank you for your kind attention.
HON. IGNATIUS DONNELLY
Talks About Corporations and the
Money Power.
At the conclusion of Gov. Clough's
address Hon. Ignatius .Donnelly was
introduced. He, too, read his address,
which was as follows:
When by the Declaration of Independence,
1t was set forth that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Gre
ator, with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness there was thereby established
nation Of freemen, in which there could be
no prescribed or servile class. And 1nasmuch
as it is part of Gods providence that the i'm
provement of his world shall be accomplished,
and can only be accomplished, by the work
of mems hands; for mental operations with
therefore, follows that the primary purpose
of our experiment of government was the e.e-
walton and prosperity and happiness OF the
toilers of the land.
rhetoric is made manifest by the preamble
of the constitution of the United States, which
formulates the spirit which dwells within the
great instrument and which must control all
its legitimate processes of development.
I'VE, the people of the United States, IN or
der to form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide
for the common defense, promote the general
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and
establish this constitution for the United
States of America.
Those words promote the general welfare, )"
are the keystone Of the whole structure, and
as the general welfare includes the individual
welfare, these words prove that our govern
ment was created to make the working peo-
pie prosperous and happy And wherever it
REASONABLY
verted from its original purpose.
That this was the true intent and meaning
of the founders of our government was made
more closely manifest by the following sub
division of section nine of article one of the
constitution:
''No title of nobility shall be granted by
the United States; and no person holding any
office of profit or trust under them shall, with
out the consent Of the congress, accept of any
present, emolument, office or title of any
kind whatever, from any king, prince or for
eign state
This is a declaration not only against the
creation of an aristocracy on our soil; but
against our officials being corrupted by foreign
nations, which, at that time, with one excep-
ton, Switzerland, were royal, and hostile to
our institutions.
There was thus established in America
government OF the common people, nearly
every one of whom was then toi.er, with
his hands. There was not a banker nor a
money-lender, a capitalist in the couti-
mental army Not drop of aristocratic blood
stained the SHOWS of Valley Forge There
was scarcely corporation in the land. We
had trampled under foot that vllainous super
stition-the divine right of kings-and we
had driven the crowned monsters from our
soil. We had proclaimed the absolute, legal
equality of every man with every other man;
we had by express words, prohibited the es-
tablishment of a nobility, and this included,
by inference, every form of aristocracy.
And this nation of farmers and hunters and
fishermen thus started forth upon an expert
ont will al in Of he
human family.
And great was their reward. Never was
there seen such growth and development as
followed. The world fiocked to our shores.
Industry, secure of it's rewards, labored with
an unprecedented zeal. The inventive genius
of man bounded forward and achieved ire
mendous results A continent was overrun.
The forest Disappeared; agriculture spread its
golden garment of happy homesteads over the
wilderness There being no oppression, there
was no discomfort; no discomfort, no turbu-
lence; we were the most peaceful and pros
porous people in the world
But our very growth has been our undoing.
Human greed, which, once across ocean,
was represented by brutal robber-barons, who
reduced the peaceful people to serfdom, here
took new, but no less effective, shapes.
Craft then meant strength; now it means
cunning The instructive desires to avoid
labor and make others work for them, which
at the bottom of the feudal system, here
adapted itself to new conditions. The man
in armor disappeared; the corrupter of courts
and legislatures in broadcloth took his place.
That mighty engine for the formation of
to our ancestors, and the most extraordi-
nary the world has ever known-more potent
than parks Of artillery-has been wheeled
into line. Corporations, which Blackstone
disposed of in few lines, and which, at
the time of the formation Of our government
scarcely existed have, not by law, but by
monstrous proportions. They are declared to
be persons-immortal persons-with all the
rights of citizens. They can live forever;
but they cannot be hanged or imprisoned.
They are a species of demons-with the at
tributes of men; but without human respon-
sibility or conscience or affections Genera
lions pass away, but they survive; death
touches them not; the grave yard is not for
them They marry no wives; they raise no
families They have no object in existing
but pure, unmitigated greed-the approprla-
ton to themselves of that wealth which la
Dor alone can produce. And TINS process
of the exploitation of industry they vastly
facilitate, until at last 1t has come to pass
that those, who, by their toll, produce all
necessares of life to maintain existence;
while those persons, natural and artificial
who have produced nothing, who, from the
beginning to the end of their worthless lives,
have added not a siXpence TO the wealth OF
the country, roll and riot, like swine. in the
af1uence of their stolen wealth, encountered
by their unnecessary abundance
And our courts, which were originally in
tended tc simply preside over the disputes
of citizens and hold at equipoise 1.-The doubt
full balance of rights and wrongs, or to
administer, in the name Of the community,
punishment to those who have invaded the
privileges of citizens, have, by continuous
march of usurpation, beginning almost as
soon as Our government was formed, reached
above the people, their legislatures and their
congresses, and absorb into their own hands
the entire government of the country
For surely, the power which can annul
~ low l. tor
makes the laws
The people through their representatives,
are supposed to govern; but here is higher
government composed of few men, which
is mightier than our 70, 600 900 of supposed
se'f-governed freemen. And the most pow
erful of these judges are not elected by the
people; are not amenabie to them in any
way, and hold their places until death
the only thing we have in this country to-
day that is not controlled by the money
power-sees fit to remove them to their re-
ward.
And vet. extraordinary it may SEEM
the people have never established any such
system; and no other civilized country In
the world would permit it for one instant.
We can search the constitution of all the
states and of the nation and we sha!l not hnd
syllable which authorizes or justifies it.
The first section of the Constitution OF the
United States says: uEeF
"AU legislative powers herein granted shall
be vested in a congress of the United States,
which shall consist OF senate and house
of representatives.
There is no such provision this added
to it:
provided. that. if congress shall pass any
law which the supreme court of the United
States shall conclude is in violation OF this
constitution, o. any part of it, or of the
spirit of the same or any part of it, as in
terpreted by the judgment of a majority of
said court they shall have the right to null
lily and set it aside"
II This was the intent of the trainers of the
constitution, then it should have commenced
with these words:
1.-THE ultimate and absolute power, to make
the laws of the United States, shall be vested
in the members of the supreme court; and
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