John Brown: History’s Greatest Hero

1. John Brown: History’s Greatest Hero • “Few people dared on that fateful day to breathe a sympathetic word for the grizzled old agitator.” • Old John Brown set an example of moral courage and of single-hearted devotion to an ideal for all men and for all ages. • With every drop of his honest blood he hated slavery [...] He did not reckon the overwhelming numbers against him, nor the paltry few that were on his side. This grosser aspect of the issue found no lodgment in his mind or heart. He was right and Jehovah was with him. His was not to reckon consequences, but to strike the immortal blow and step from the gallows to the throne of God.”

2. The wrath of retributive justice, long asleep, awakened at last and hurled its lurid bolt. Old John Brown struck the blow and the storm broke. That hour chattel slavery was dead. • In the first frightful convulsion the slave power seized the grand old liberator by the throat, put him in irons and threw him into a dungeon to await execution.” • “Who shall be the John Brown of Wage-Slavery?”

3. Sedition Conviction • June 16, 1918, Debs gives speech urging resistance to WWI draft • Wilson calls him “a traitor to his country” • Sentenced to 10 years • President Harding commutes sentence to time served in 1923 • On return to Terre Haute, IN, greeted by crowd of 50,000 and marching bands

4. “While there is a lower class, I am in it” • Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. • Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in a fundamental change—but if possible by peaceable and orderly means, • Standing here this morning, I recall my boyhood. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad. I remember all the hardships and privations of that earlier day, and from that time until now my heart has been with the working class. I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison…”

5. “I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.” • “This order of things cannot always endure. • Your Honor, I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice.”

6. Who Owns America?:Fighting Bob La Follette & Theodore Roosevelt “Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration” (Political Science 565)

7. Robert M. “Fighting Bob” La Follette • 1855-1925 • WI Rep. 1855-91, Gov. 1901-1906, Sen. 1906-1925 • Founded Progressive Party, ran for president in 1924, carried WI & 17% of popular vote • Regularly ranked one of the most important senators of all time • UW-Madison alum

8. Free Speech in Wartime (1917) • Accusations of treason for opposing the war • “If I alone had been made the victim of these attacks, I should not take one moment of the Senate's time for their consideration, and I believe that other senators who have been unjustly and unfairly assailed, as I have been, hold the same attitude upon this that I do.” • “Neither the clamor of the mob nor the voice of power will ever turn me by the breadth of a hair from the course I mark out for myself guided by such knowledge as I can obtain and controlled and directed by a solemn conviction of right and duty.” • Legacy of Emerson

9. “Terrorized & Outraged” • “Today and for weeks past honest and law-abiding citizens of this country are being terrorized and outraged in their rights by those sworn to uphold the laws and protect the rights of the people.” • American Protective League • Vigilante organization “Organized with the Approval and Operating under the Direction of the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation” Got badges. • Unpaid, unscreened volunteers • Infiltrated unions and leftist organizations like the International Workers of the World • “Slacker raids”: trying to find young men who were not carrying draft card at all times, as req’d by sect. 57 of the Selective Service act of 1917 • September 3-5, 1918 • Citywide “slacker raid” in New York City, approaching civilians and demanding that they produce their registration cards • Illegally detained 60,187 men caged in Central Park, discovering 199 men who had evaded the draft and eight deserters

10. Permanent Emergencies • “In time of war the citizen must be more alert to the preservation of his right to control his government. He must be most watchful of the encroachment of the military upon the civil power. He must beware of those precedents in support of arbitrary action by administrative officials, which excused on the plea of necessity in wartime, become the fixed rule when the necessity has passed and normal conditions have been restored.”

11. Empire & War • “With the possessions we already have in remote parts of the world, with the obligations we seem almost certain to assume as a result of the present war, a war can be made any time overnight and the destruction of personal rights now occurring will be pointed to then as precedents for a still further invasion of the rights of the citizen. • This is the road which all free governments have heretofore traveled to their destruction, and how far we have progressed along it is shown when we compare the standard of liberty of Lincoln, Clay, and Webster with the standard of the present day.”

12. Dissent not Treason • “[The Framers] knew that it mattered not whether you call the man king or emperor, czar or president, to put into his hands the power of making war or peace meant despotism. It meant that the people would be called upon to wage wars in which they had no interest or to which they might even be opposed.” • “In other words, it is for Congress to determine what we are fighting for. The president, as commander in chief of the army, is to determine the best method of carrying on the fight. But since the purposes of the war must determine what are the best methods of conducting it, the primary duty at all times rests upon Congress to declare either in' the declaration of war or subsequently what the objects are which it is expected to accomplish by the war.”

13. The Danger Threatening Representative Government (1897) • “The existence of the corporation, as we have it with us today, was never dreamed of by the fathers . . . The corporation of today has invaded every department of business, and it’s powerful but invisible hand is felt in almost all activities of life . . . The effect of this change upon the American people is radical and rapid.”

14. Primaries, Corporations, & Political Machines • “Do not look to such lawmakers to restrain corporations within proper limits. Do not look to such lawmakers to equalize the burden of taxation. Do not look to such lawmakers to lift politics out of the ways of darkness. • No, begin at the foundation, make one supreme effort, --even under the present bad system, --to secure a better set of lawmakers. Rally to the caucuses and conventions, each with the party in which he believes. Secure one victory, if possible, over the machine, elect men who will pass a primary election law which will enable the voter to sell the candidate of his choice without the intervention of caucuses or convention of the domination of the machine. • Do this and your officers will respond to public opinion. Do this and the reforms you seek will be within easy reach.”

15. Memory & Future • “Oh, men! Think of the heroes who died to make this country free; think of their sons who died to keep it undivided upon the map of the world. Shall we, their children, basely surrender our birthright and say: “Representative government is a failure? No, never, until Bunker Hill and Little Round Top, sink into the very earth.” • Let us here, today, under this flag we all love, hallowed by the memory of all that has been sacrificed for it and for us, dedicate ourselves to winning back the independence of this country, to emancipating this generation and throwing off from the neck of the freemen of America, the yoke of the political machine.”

16. Theodore Roosevelt • 1858-1919 • Historian, hunter, rancher • “Rough Riders”: Cuba 1898 • Mayor of NYC, Governor of New York • Progressive Republican • 1900: VP for McKinley • 1901: McKinley assassinated, TR become youngest president ever at 41 • Negotiated end to Russo-Japanese War, won Nobel Peace Prize • “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” • “Square Deal” • Trustbusting & conservation • Caught malaria in Amazon • Supported WWI, but youngest son killed, died soon after

17. Election of 1912 • In 1908, TR had enthusiastically supported GOP candidate Taft • In 1910, bitter break w/Taft, both personal and political • 1910: New Nationalism Speech • 1912: Progressive (“Bull Moose”) Party • TR takes progressive wing of GOP with him • Survives being shot by assassin, delivers 90 min speech • Split in GOP hands election to Wilson • Wilson 42% (435 EC votes), TR 27% (88), Taft 23% (6), Debs 6% (0) • Leaves conservative Republicans in control of GOP legislative presence • Beginning of rightward trajectory for GOP

18. New Nationalism Speech (1910) • “There have been two great crises in our country’s history: first, when it was formed, and then, again, when it was perpetuated; and, in the second of these great crises-in the time of stress and strain which culminated in the Civil War, on the outcome of which depended the justification of what had been done earlier, you men of the Grand Army, you men who fought through the Civil War, not only did you justify your generation, but you justified the wisdom of Washington and Washington’s colleagues.” • “In name we had the Declaration of Independence in 1776; but we gave the lie by our acts to the words of the Declaration of Independence until 1865; and words count for nothing except in so far as they represent acts.” • As for Lincoln, Americans must both serve and surpass the Founders

19. Continuity with the Past • “Of that generation of men to whom we owe so much, the man to whom we owe most is, of course, Lincoln. Part of our debt to him is because he forecast our present struggle and saw the way out. He said: • "I hold that while man exists it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind." • And again: • "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." • If that remark was original with me, I should be even more strongly denounced as a Communist agitator than I shall be anyhow. It is Lincoln’s. I am only quoting it; and that is one side; that is the side the capitalist should hear. Now, let the working man hear his side. • "Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. . . . Nor should this lead to a war upon the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; . . . property is desirable; is a positive good in the world."

20. “The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows. That is what you fought for in the Civil War, and that is what we strive for now.” • “At every stage, and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth. That is nothing new.”

21. Square Deal • “Practical equality of opportunity for all citizens, when we achieve it, will have two great results. • First, every man will have a fair chance to make of himself all that in him lies; to reach the highest point to which his capacities, unassisted by special privilege of his own and unhampered by the special privilege of others, can carry him, and to get for himself and his family substantially what he has earned. • Second, equality of opportunity means that the commonwealth will get from every citizen the highest service of which he is capable. No man who carries the burden of the special privileges of another can give to the commonwealth that service to which it is fairly entitled. • I stand for the square deal. But when I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good service.”

22. New Nationalism • “The fundamental thing to do for every man is to give him a chance to reach a place in which he will make the greatest possible contribution to the public welfare. Understand what I say there. Give him a chance, not push him up if he will not be pushed. Help any man who stumbles; if he lies down, it is a poor job to try to carry him; but if he is a worthy man, try your best to see that he gets a chance to show the worth that is in him. • No man can be a good citizen unless he has a wage more than sufficient to cover the bare cost of living, and hours of labor short enough so after his day’s work is done he will have time and energy to bear his share in the management of the community, to help in carrying the general load.”

23. State Intervention & Democracy • “There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done.” • We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that the people may know beyond peradventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. • Laws prohibiting the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes • Same control and supervision which should be exercised over public-service corporations should be extended also to combinations which control “necessaries of life” • “I believe that the officers, and, especially, the directors, of corporations should be held personally responsible when any corporation breaks the law.”

24. State Intervention & Democracy • “Combinations in industry are the result of an imperative economic law which cannot be repealed by political legislation. The effort at prohibiting all combination has substantially failed. The way out lies, not in attempting to prevent such combinations, but in completely controlling them in the interest of the public welfare.” • Public > Private • State as the institution that serves the national interest, has priority over private interest

25. New Nationalism • The National Government belongs to the whole American people, and where the whole American people are interested, that interest can be guarded effectively only by the National Government. The betterment which we seek must be accomplished, I believe, mainly through the National Government. • National Gov’t prior to state, local gov’t • Executive prior to legislative, judicial branches • Legislature: divide, deadlocked, parochial, controlled by special interests • Judiciary: has only negative powers • Executive: elected by national constituency

26. New Nationalism • “The object of government is the welfare of the people. • The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so long as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens.” • “The prime problem of our nation is to get the right type of good citizenship, and, to get it, we must have progress, and our public men must be genuinely progressive.”

27. Who is a Progressive? (1912) • Taft says he is, but • “The essential difference, as old as civilized history, is between the men who, with fervor and broad sympathy and imagination, stand for the forward movement, the men who stand for the uplift and betterment of mankind, and who have faith in the people, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the men of narrow vision and small sympathy, who are not stirred by the wrongs of others. • With these latter stand also those other men who distrust the people, and many of whom not merely distrust the people, but wish to keep them helpless so as to exploit them for their own benefit.”

28. Gov’t as Shield of the People • “We of to-day who stand for the Progressive movement here in the United States are not wedded to any particular kind of machinery, save solely as means to the end desired. Our aim is to secure the real and not the nominal rule of the people. • With this purpose in view, we propose to do away with whatever in our government tends to secure to privilege, and to the great sinister special interests, a rampart from behind which they can beat back the forces that strive for social and industrial justice, and frustrate the will of the people.”

29. “We say, in the words of Lincoln, that we must prevent wrong ‘being done either by Congress or courts. The people of these United States are rightful masters of both Congress and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who prevent the Constitution.’” • Lincoln: “They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time. The one is the common right of humanity, the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says: You toil and work and earn bread and I’ll eat it. No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who bestrides the people of his own nation and lives from the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.”

30. “And of course this applies no more to the slave-owner or to the foreign despot than to the present-day American citizen who oppresses others by the abuse of special privilege, be his wealth great or little, • be he the multi-millionaire owner of railways and mines and factories who forgets his duties to those who earn him his bread while earning their own, or be he only the owner of a foul little sweatshop in which he grinds dollars from the excessive and underpaid labor of haggard women.”

31. City on a Hill • “Clouds hover about the horizon throughout the civilized world. But here in America the fault is our own if the sky above us is not clear. • We have a continent on which to work out or destiny. Our people, our men and women, are fit to face the mighty days. • If we fail, the failure will be lamentable; for not only shall we fail for ourselves, but our failure will wreck the fond desires of all throughout the world who look toward us with the eager hope that here, in this great Republic, it shall be proved, from ocean to ocean, that the people can rule themselves, and, thus ruling, can give liberty and do justice both to themselves and to others.”

32. Big Questions • What is the appropriate balance between state and federal power? • Is the United States a single nation or a confederation of states? • Who is, and who can be, an American? • What is an American? • How can the legacies of slavery be addressed? • What does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be equal? • What counts as power?