No Treason — Outline

Thesis

Development

1. 1.

   Opening: the Constitution as a dead contract

   “It purports, at most, to be only a contract between persons living eighty years ago.”

   I.
2. 2.

   Argument 1: voting does not constitute consent

   “voting furnishes no legal evidence as to who the particular individuals are (if there are any), who voluntarily support the Constitution.”

   II.
3. 3.

   Argument 2: tax payment does not constitute consent

   “The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: "Your money, or your life.”

   III.
4. 4.

   Argument 3: the Constitution was never signed

   “It is a general principle of law and reason, that a written instrument binds no one until he has signed it.”

   IV.
5. 5.

   Argument 4: the Statute of Frauds and common practice confirm the signing requirement

   “this supposed contract, which would not be received in any court of justice sitting under its authority, if offered to prove a debt of five dollars, owing by one man to another”

   V.
6. 6.

   Argument 5: the Constitution grants absolute, irresponsible power

   “What is this but absolute, irresponsible power?”

   VI.
7. 7.

   Synthesis: all who act under the Constitution are usurpers

   “on general principles of law and reason—such principles as we all act upon in courts of justice and in common life—the Constitution is no contract; that it binds nobody, and never did bind anybody”

   VII.
8. 8.

   Analysis: the secret ballot as the sole practical foundation of government

   “A tacit understanding between A, B, and C, that they will, by ballot, depute D as their agent, to deprive me of my property, liberty, or life, cannot at all authorize D to do so.”

   VIII.
9. 9.

   Analysis: the motive for the secret ballot exposed

   “Like other confederates in crime, those who use it are not friends, but enemies; and they are afraid to be known, and to have their individual doings known, even to each other.”

   IX.
10. 10.

    Conclusion on government's actual composition

    “the only visible, tangible, responsible government that exists, is that of a few individuals only, who act in concert”

    X.
11. 11.

    Application: oaths of members of Congress are void

    “the oaths which these pretended agents of the people take "to support the Constitution," are of no validity or obligation. And why? For this, if for no other reason, viz., that they are given to nobody.”

    XI.
12. 12.

    Application: oaths of all other government agents are void

    “The oaths of the tax-gatherers and treasurers of the band, are, on general principles of law and reason, of no validity.”

    XII.
13. 13.

    Application: naturalization oaths are void

    “all oaths that purport to be given to such an association are necessarily given only to the winds.”

    XIII.
14. 14.

    Application: post-war loyalty oaths of Southern men are void

    “Such oaths are invalid, not only because they were extorted by military power, and threats of confiscation, and because they are in contravention of men's natural right to do as they please about supporting the government, but also because they were given to nobody.”

    XIV.
15. 15.

    Application: soldiers' oaths are void

    “There being, in no legitimate sense, any such corporation, or nation, as "the United States," nor, consequently, in any legitimate sense, any such government as "the government of the United States," a soldier's oath given to, or contract made with, such nation or government, is necessarily an oath given to, or a contract made with, nobody.”

    XV.
16. 16.

    Application: treaties are void

    “Our pretended treaties, then, being made with no legitimate or bona fide nations, or representatives of nations, and being made, on our part, by persons who have no legitimate authority to act for us, have intrinsically no more validity than a pretended treaty made by the Man in the Moon with the king of the Pleiades.”

    XVI.
17. 17.

    Application: the national debt is void

    “It is utterly absurd to pretend that debts to the amount of twenty-five hundred millions of dollars are binding upon thirty-five or forty millions of people, when there is not a particle of legitimate evidence—such as would be required to prove a private debt—that can be produced against any one of them”

    XVII.
18. 18.

    Root cause: blood-money lenders as the real rulers

    “those who stand ready to furnish this money, are the real rulers. It is so in Europe, and it is so in this country.”

    XVIII.
19. 19.

    Application to the United States: the Civil War as a scheme of robbery

    “the industrial and commercial slavery of the great body of the people, North and South, black and white, is the price which these lenders of blood money demand, and insist upon, and are determined to secure, in return for the money lent for the war.”

    XIX.
20. 20.

    Appendix: the Constitution unfit to exist regardless of its true meaning

    “it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.”

    APPENDIX.

Conclusion