Various

“ In the political world the lawyer is omnipresent, indispensable.
Who organizes the Machine and steers the Boss on his cruise, keeping him off the reefs and bars of the Criminal Code?
The lawyer.
Who maps out the campaign, devises a fraud upon the people which the statute cannot quite reach, and then, after the election has been stolen from the people, shows the Boss how to keep the stolen goods in defiance of right and in spite of the legal proceedings? ”

“ You stand knocking at the closed door of privilege, as the reformer has ever done, and saying to those within, ‘Open wide the doors! Let all who are worthy, enter. Let all who deserve, enjoy. Form no conspiracy against the unborn. Shut out no generations that are to be. God made it all for all. Put no barrier around the good things of life, around the high places of church or state. Make no laws which foster inequality. Establish no Caste. Legalize no robbery under the name of taxes. Give to no person natural or artificial sovereign powers over his fellow men. ”

“ You stand where the reformer has always stood; for improvement, for beneficial changes, for recognition of human brotherhood in its highest sense, for equality before the law, and for an industrial system which is not based upon the right of the strong to pillage the weak. You stand as sworn foes of monopoly—not monopoly in the narrow sense of the word—but monopoly of power, of place, of privilege, of wealth, of progress. ”

“ He found the New World a wilderness and he has well-nigh made it a garden. His axe, his spade, his hoe, his plow, his muscle, his brain, his very heart and soul have all been enlisted in the work; and never once have his lips uttered the craven’s plea for “Protection.” Never once has he gone to the doors of legislation begging special favors. Never once has he lied to government and people for the purpose of securing a selfish advantage at the expense of his fellowman. ”

“ Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine stands for all that is best in the life of the people and the future of the republic. It will advocate those principles for which its editor has so long fought. It is Mr. Watson’s unselfish ambition to establish this Magazine in the minds, hearts and thoughts of our people; to make it a power for the right against the wrong and to make it a factor in moulding the minds of our young manhood and womanhood for the future. ”

“ Watson in his Editorials for the Magazine, they didn’t only insult him, but they insulted every reader of it who believes in the pure Jeffersonian principles which Mr. Watson so ably advocates and defends. I would be proud of Tom Watson were he from any other section of the Union. He being a Southern man and a Georgian at that, I am exceedingly proud of him. I fear somebody has been taken upon the Mount and shown the glorious things the railroads will do if they will only fall down and worship them. If no Watson is with the Magazine then no Magazine for me. ”

“ As a friend who holds you in loyal and affectionate admiration, I resent with all my heart the treatment which you have received at the hands of one who is man in name only and who in nature is half jackal and half hyena. I am aware how true it is that the most insignificant of insects may vex even the noble lion. Mann may be a millionaire, but I warrant his shillings are dirty. How miserably poor the wretch is when the only assets he has in the world are the millions which lie in the bank! ”

“ The innocent man, accused of crime, needs a lawyer; is not safe without one, and may be convicted, even then, if he happens to employ a sorry one, who can be outwitted by the prosecution.
The guilty man, accused of crime, needs a lawyer; is not safe without one; and if he employs a good one, while the prosecution is managed by a sorry one, the jury may be forced to turn him loose, although they feel that he is “as guilty as a dog.”
Thus, looked at from the standpoint of mere ambition, sordid selfishness, the “study of law” powerfully attracts young men who want to get on in the world. ”

“ In the business world the lawyer levies his tribute upon the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the hayseed farmer and the silk-hat financier.
Our Wall Street Money-Kings would no more think of organizing a rascally scheme of High Finance without the help of lawyers than the buccaneers of old would have thought of flying the pirate flag without guns on board. ”

“ We have our rulers aping everything Europe does, and fitting upon us, forever, the abominable system our forefathers fled to escape.
Where are class laws more insolently dominant than here?
Where is Special Privilege more tyranically exacting than here?
Where are monopolies more contemptuous of law and public welfare than here?
What people are greater slaves to misgovernment than you whose low-priced products must bear the strain of untaxed bonds, useless offices, and a steady growth of ever increasing salaries? ”

“ It was Danton, the lawyer, who led the Revolution, and sketched the Democratic state, in which all the people should rule for the benefit of all.
It was the lawyer who led in the long, hard fight for Civil liberty in England; the lawyer who slew the monsters of her Criminal Code; the lawyer who armed the private citizen with school-book and ballot. ”

“ He has not only not demanded of the government either Protection or Privilege, but he has submitted—yes, for one hundred years he has submitted!—to be robbed of a portion of his annual produce in order that our Infant Industry Capitalists should be able to build up the corporate power which now, in the form of Trusts, dominates the Republic and secures the lion’s share of all the wealth created in every field of industry. ”

“ Boss Murphy is a rich specimen of the Boss—the man who is in politics for Money, who cares nothing for Principle, who has no conception of Duty, who would not understand what you meant if you talked to him about Moral Obligation, who amasses wealth by screening from adverse legislation the rascals that rob the Public under corporate names, who makes it possible for invaluable public franchises to be stolen with impunity, and who renders it easy for the robbers that grabbed the property to use it to oppress and exploit the people from whom it was stolen. ”

“ As you follow the narrative of Andrew Jackson’s career, you will hear him say many things that you will not approve, will see him do many things which you cannot applaud, but when you recall that at the very top-notch of his success and his pride, his heart stayed in the right place, and was sore because his mother could not be there to gladden her old eyes with the glory of her son—you will forgive him much in his life that was harsh and cruel and utterly wrong. ”

“ Plutocracy, and in this connection nothing will ever be accomplished in the way of bringing this Government again into the possession of the people if any such suicidal policy is pursued. The reformers must get together if this Republic is to be preserved, if it is not even now too late to save it. Of this I am certain: we have no time left us for internal dissensions, and I hope that so splendid a soldier of the common good as yourself, will, in the future, refrain from stirring up discord in the ranks of Reform, and reserve your ammunition entirely for our enemies. ”

“ And that very fact impeaches your honesty in quoting, as against Tom Watson, the slanders of corporation hirelings and political hacks, whom you know are fighting him for what there is in it. No! no! When you go straining a point, you always prove too much.
Be something like a man, and bid him God speed in his task of awakening the people to their dangers, even if he does leave them short of being full-fledged socialists.
Tom Watson’s opinions are not in all respects mine. In fact, there are many points on which we do not agree. ”

“ The patient courage which swung the axe, in the depths of primeval woods, was no less heroic than the bravery which made the musket conquer. The toil of the warrior’s march was slight by comparison with the homely, but exhausting, work of preparing the soil for the sowing of seed. The arrows of the red men were not more deadly to the soldier than were the fevers which rose from the swamps and pulled down the settler as he struggled to open out his farm. ”

“ What’s being Speaker of the House to having the fat knave and the lean sneak virtually tell the world, in a magazine bearing your name, that you are wealthy and therefore could afford to work for them for nothing? ”

“ I think if the Humane Society would stop and think deeply in regard to the young boys and girls that spend their school days in hard labor out of school there would be something done to protect them and give them a chance for a better future than is now before them.
It would be surprising to anyone who has had the advantages of education and really felt its real value in life to stroll along the prairies and see just how many bright young boys and girls are out of touch with the educated world. ”

“ Now, the Socialist strikes at individualism. He doesn’t want to own your home by any title that gives you individual control of it. He wants everybody’s home to belong to you, and your home to belong to everybody. In other words, the homes of the people are to be owned collectively. If society sees fit to say to you “Move on,” out you go. Society will substitute its title for your title, its will for your will, its control for your control. The home that Socialism will permit you to use this year may be allotted to some one else another year. ”

“ It may be asked why I did not cut loose from the Town Topics gang after the exposures in the Collier-Hapgood Case. Simply because Col. Mann had nothing on earth to do with what I regarded as the Magazine, to wit—its policy, its purpose, its message. That was the life of the Magazine. That, in my eyes, was the Magazine.
I did not want to leave the subscribers in the lurch, nor did I want to abandon a field of labor in which I seemed to be doing a good work.
Every man who has a purpose in life and who loves his work, will understand me. ”

“ Who is it that the beneficiaries of class-legislation naturally select to advance their claims, voice their demands, guard their interests in the legislatures of states, in the Congress of the United States, in the Cabinet of the President?
The lawyer.
Under our system, so complex has it become, the man who wants to do right doesn’t know how. Except in the simplest transactions, a lawyer must show him how. If, on the contrary, a bad man wants to do wrong, but wants to escape punishment, he needs, and can generally get, a lawyer to show him the way. ”

“ May it yet come to pass that some time, SOME TIME, in the unfolding of higher and better things, these angels of Mercy, the Good Women of the Christian Nations, may be able to rush in between the lines, as once happened in the days of old, and stay the hands lifted to shed human blood! ”

“ But when the corporations want financial legislation which will tend still further to make our National Treasury a huge Reservoir from which the National Banks and their allies can draw strength, support and profit—why, THEN, it is a matter of CURRENCY REFORM, and if Congress doesn’t give the Money Power everything it demands, the Country will go to the “demnition bow-wows.”
That’s how it is, my son.
The moguls of high finance declare that what our currency system needs is greater “elasticity.” The India rubber quality is wanting, it seems. The present system doesn’t stretch readily enough. ”

“ Nevertheless, every time anyone came into the station, or a carriage drew up at the door, the heart of the young man with the blue spectacles became inflated like a balloon, his knees trembled, his bag almost fell from his hands, and his glasses off his nose, where, we may mention in passing, they were seated crookedly.
His agitation increased when, after a long wait, a woman appeared by a side door, from precisely the direction in which he had kept a constant lookout. ”

“ Perhaps the most pronounced feature of Liberalism in the Old World today is the conviction that the separation of church and state must become an accomplished fact. A movement so vast could not be carried forward without being complicated in some measure with bigotry and fanaticism, but on the whole it may be said that it is inspired and sustained by the highest motives of state policy. ”

“ Populists believe in UNTAXED NECESSARIES OF LIFE, and contend that whatever tariff duties are imposed should be laid upon luxuries.
In brief, Populists strive for the adoption of those principles which would make this a real Republic, instead of an Aristocracy ruled by a Class, or a Plutocracy in which Dollars dominate.
And during the whole time that the Politicians and Sages and Powers have been laughing at us, we have been quietly furnishing with our garments the wardrobes of such eminent Politicians, Sages and Powers as Roosevelt, Bryan and Hearst. ”

“ All things considered, no other profession offers so great a return upon the investment of time, talent and industry.
While the nations are standing in arms, clothed in steel from head to foot, the purpose is not so much to fight as to discourage attack from without and insurrection from within. The standing army gives the education whose watchword is “Obey!” It cultivates the class-pride and prejudice upon which caste rule is built. ”

“ His section of the Magazine had been closed before the President’s message was made public, but in a private letter to me, Mr. Watson remarks that the finest sentence to be found in Mr. Roosevelt’s recent message to Congress, is this:
“Neither a nation, nor an individual, can surrender conscience to another’s keeping. A just war is far better for the soul of a nation than the most prosperous peace obtained by acquiescence to any wrong or injustice.” ”