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Title: Law, Commerce and Religion Author: Eliphalet Kimball Date: 1862 Language: en Topics: law, religion, capitalism Source: https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/anarchist-beginnings/eliphalet-kimball-law-commerce-and-religion-1862/
Mr. Editor:—Law, Commerce, and Religion, are the causes of the wrongs,
vices, and consequent sufferings which have always prevailed in
civilized nations. Natural law, or the healing power of Nature, would
regulate society as it does the human body.—The mind of man is his body.
Artificial law is a poison which deranges the course of Nature, and is
sure to disorder society. The stillness of legal despotism is disorder.
Artificial government turns morality upside down, and keeps it so by
force. It protects a class of bad men in wronging others, but is no
benefit to honest men. Under established laws and forms of government,
its full development is impossible.
Artificial law creates Commerce. Commerce makes rich men. The rich make
the class of suffering poor, as a natural consequence. Commerce, and
merchants, cause luxury, love of show, avarice, speculation,
selfishness, dishonesty;—then comes aristocracy, and next monarchy. Our
commerce with Europe is fast bringing society in the United States into
the same condition with that in Europe. Monarchy in the United States is
near. Law, Commerce, and Religion, make leading men. The leading men
have ruined the United States, and made the nation not worth saving.
Every rich man, every man who lives in showy style, is a curse to this
country. Commerce was and is the cause of negro slavery. The nations
which have most commerce are most unprincipled; for instance, England
and the United States. It is pretended that Commerce promotes peace,
civilization, and fraternity. The contrary is true. Commerce was at the
bottom of the piratical wars of England in India, and China, and others
the world over. Commercial avarice caused the great national crime
committed by the United States against Japan, in forcing her to open her
ports. The ruin of the Japanese dates from the visit of Commodore Perry
to their shores. According to all accounts, Japan excels all other
civilized nations in the condition and character of its inhabitants. It
is comparatively the country of justice and equal rights, of plainness,
mediocrity, and comfort. The people are correspondingly virtuous. For
the last two hundred years, they have not had a war. The cause of their
better state of society is, they have no commerce nor religion. They are
a nation of Atheists. They were shocked at being told that the Americans
believe in a God. The Japanese have only the social wrongs and faults of
character which spring from law. The frequent civil wars in Mexico are
owing, not to faults of character of the people, but to their unequal
condition, caused by law. The land of Mexico is in the hands of a few
men, and of the Church. The leading men, and the Church, are at the
bottom of the civil wars in that country. The inability of the French to
maintain a republican government, is owing to the inequality of the
people, caused, by Law, Commerce, and Religion, and not to faults of
national character. Commerce has hastened the degeneracy of the American
republic. The leading men have corrupted society, and the government.
The elections are controlled by money. The important offices are mostly
filled by unworthy men. The powerful influence of mercantile wealth is
brought to bear on Congressional legislation, to encourage Commerce for
the gratification of avarice, and thus in effect increase prevailing
wrongs. The American government made no open war on China, but their
minister and war vessels sneakingly accompanied the British expedition,
to assist indirectly its piratical operations, and profit by its
victories. Just wars are sometimes prevented by commercial selfishness.
Commercial influence makes unjust wars, and disgraceful peace, according
to which brings most money.
Religion is the resource of bad minds. It springs from ignorance, and
want of reason, and is false in every particular. False principles
cannot be otherwise than injurious to society. Religion and goodness are
entirely different and separate. A person may be good without religion,
or religious without goodness. Of course, he is not by nature a good
man, who does right only from religious motives. All murderers, when in
prison, and on the gallows, make known their belief in religion. The
same want of reason and goodness that makes them commit murder, makes
them believe in religion. Bad men are the strongest believers in the
necessity of law and of future punishment. They think that all mankind,
like themselves, are governed by nothing better than fear. Such men are
the Christians. The followers of Jesus Christ are not good by nature. A
follower is an imitator. The imitator is different by nature from the
person imitated. Of course, those who imitate Christ do not resemble him
in natural character. Those who are born good have to imitate nobody.
They act out themselves. Priests declare that the world is governed by a
God, and religion is necessary to keep people in order. At the same time
they profess to believe that human law is necessary. Kings and
aristocrats affirm that human government is indispensable, and at the
same time they profess to believe that religion is necessary for
society. To assert the need of divine law, and of human law also, proves
a want of confidence in either. Both have been abundantly tried
together, and found wanting. A God would have not right to create
people, without asking their leave, nor govern them without their
consent. The clergy are mostly aristocrats and monarchists. Kings and
priests strengthen each other. The clergy preach the Divine appointment
of kinds, and submission to the powers that be, under penalty of eternal
damnation. They are rewarded with a union of Church and State.
Nothing is easier than to have this world a good one, if people had
reason enough to see the truth, and would apply it. Abolish all
artificial law, and let Nature take its course. Destruction is the word!
Destroy the shallow and ruinous contrivances of men, and equality,
virtue, justice, and comfort, would be the condition of the world. The
laws of Nature would prevent extreme wealth in one class, and it natural
consequence, suffering poverty, in another. Aristocracy would be
impossible. An aristocrat is never a worthy man—he is ignoble. A
government of the aristocracy is atrociously unprincipled and
selfish.—In opposition to the rights of man, it sticks at no crime nor
cruelty. Napoleon, the noblest man in the world, was entirely free of
aristocracy, and despised it in others. No person can rightfully own
land. Every person has a right to cultivate what he needs. Of course,
there would be no quarrelling about land, if nobody owned it. Fishermen
never quarrel about unclaimed water. Under natural law, the few wrongs
that would be committed, would be attended to by the people of the
neighborhood. Punishment would be more sure than now. The law ought to
be made for the occasion, and not before the crime is committed, as
circumstance make a difference in cases.—The right government of society
would naturally correspond with the government of the Universe. The
Universe is eternal, and, therefore, without beginning. It is boundless,
and, therefore, has no place for a Creator to begin at, and no place to
leave off.—It governs itself. Organization, fitness, life, mind, and
growth, are but the inevitable effect of natural law. With reference to
the works of Nature, design and chance are but the nonsense of fools.
The earth and planets are obliged by natural law to revolve with
regularity. It would take a God of great strength to stop them or turn
them from their natural course.—If there is no God-law, of course there
ought to be no man-law. Human law is unnecessary and injurious, so of
course would be God-law. If there is a king of heaven, so ought there to
be kinds of earth. Under artificial, established laws, and forms of
government, many deliberate acts of injustice go unpunished, and many
rightful things are punished.
It is only by anarchy and violence that a great accumulation of social
wrongs can be removed. Anarchy is a good word. It means, “without a
head.” Violence is the healing power of Nature applied to society. The
violence which would follow from the abolishment of law, would be
proportion to the number and magnitude of the wrongs that needed
removal. There ought always to be anarchy, but there would be no
violence where there were no wrongs.—Japan needs but little violence.
Great Britain needs much. Nothing but violence could have accomplished
the great French Revolution, the most beneficent and glorious even of
modern times. Law and Religion are responsible for whatever was wrong in
it.—Mob law is the right law. Mobs assemble to do justice, to punish bad
men whom the law does not reach, and to remove wrongs. There is more
reason and justice in a large number of men than in a small number, more
in a mob than in a Senate, House of Representatives, judges, or juries.
The government of a State, or nation, is a mob, the government of the
majority is a mob, and they are the only mobs that ought to be put down.
If mankind are not good enough to live without law, they are not good
enough to vote for law-makers. Beasts and savages are not fools enough
to believe in religion and law, and are good enough to live right
without them. Christian and civilized men appear to consider themselves
inferior in goodness to savages and beasts. In an uncorrupted state of
society, mankind are inclined to do right.—If they were naturally
inclined to evil, they would not make laws to prevent it. The fact that
laws are made, proves that law is unnecessary.