The Fall of the Great Republic (1886-88)Coverdale, Henry Standish
History
The Fall of the Great Republic (1886-88)
Coverdale, Henry Standish
Imaginary wars and battles
“Working-men! Throw aside your tools; take to guns; destroy your
oppressors; tear down the barriers which close the way to happiness,
to true manhood and freedom; secure for yourselves such conditions
as shall enable every one who is willing to work to enjoy to the
utmost the fruits of his labor! And you tramps, who, hungry, cold,
and homeless, wander through the country, a moving picture of our
splendid civilization, while a lazy, paltry crowd in their well-warmed
palaces treat themselves to the products of your labor,--you may yet
hope soon to have a reckoning, and take what belongs to you. You,
too, will yet be able to enjoy life if you will resolve to use the
power which Nature has given you, and which makes it possible for you
to produce riches. Band together, then, and arm yourselves! To the
fight, working-men! up, proletariat!... Among the friends of freedom,
socialists, and other revolutionists, the fixed idea is still met with,
that the good must in the nature of things certainly prevail sooner or
later. This, too, is a remnant of religious superstition. For the idea
can only be maintained on the assumption of a certain conformity to a
purpose in the course of history; and this in turn pre-supposes the
existence of a higher conscious being. That this idea must enfeeble
and narcotize the energy is evident. It is the most dangerous opiate
that there is for revolutionists. Religion, authority, and State are
all of a piece. To the devil with theory! The savior of the present
world must be one who will free us from the savior of the old world....
His common name is ‘Reason.’ ... His proper name is ‘Atheism,’ or
‘Disbelief.’”--_The Anzeiger, New Haven, Conn., February, 1885._
II.
A REVOLUTION NEAR AT HAND.--“IT MUST
COME.”
“The anarchist leaders met yesterday in secret session in a saloon on
Pennsylvania Avenue. There were delegates present from nearly all the
manufacturing towns in this section of the country. The meeting was
called by J. W. Gorsuch and Samuel Fielden, who were sent here by the
anarchists from Chicago to present a plan whereby the work of the cause
could be carried on among the working-men unknown to the employers.
“Fielden before he came here spoke at all the manufacturing towns. He
found, he said, that many laborers were socialists at heart, but were
afraid to attend the meetings. They came to the conclusion, therefore,
that the work must be carried on secretly until the time when the final
blow is to be struck. He argued that it was time to revolt. There was
no use denying the condition of the working-men, as the producers had
grown steadily worse, while the non-producers increased their wealth
to enormous degrees. This system was criminal to workmen, who must
strike for their freedom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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