Victoria C. Woodhull

“ This proposition was made fundamental by great and good men, the representative lights of the country at that time, standing far in advance of the general mind. Liberty and equity had burst upon their souls under the sway of tyranny and oppression, which became so odious that anything was preferable to them, to longer enduring its injustice. In this land, far removed from that where freedom could not lift its head—with a mighty ocean rolling between, they felt they had found a secure asylum from further oppression, and a land where their new-born hopes could be realized. ”

“ What the world needs to-day is, that science, supported by wealth, shall come into power. Could this be arrived at, the dangers and difficulties now hovering around the issues between the still captive and the interests of enslaved labor, would be dispelled, and society, without further convulsive efforts, could assume its uninterrupted march toward perfect conditions of existence. It is to be feared that wealth will not yield to science, and that it will endeavor to bring it under its sway to further enslave the “toiling millions” and make them minister longer to its despotism. ”

“ It is not necessary for us to say that all such fortunes are the results of bribery and corruption, and their possessors public thieves, and utterly unworthy of the confidence of honest devotees to a popular form of government.
It is this species of corruption that is becoming a stench in the nostrils of all those whose patriotism is more than pocket deep. In its growth they see the process of national disintegration begun, which they well know cannot continue indefinitely without bringing destruction to our country. ”

“ On the contrary, it is their true interest to render fullest justice and strictest equality to the demands of labor, to be determined by the principles that shall promote the most general good. It is the greatest mistake of the age—it has been the greatest mistake of all ages—to suppose that individual benefit must accrue from the acquisition of wealth at the expense or sacrifice of any general principle of justice. It is also a great mistake for labor to array itself in opposition to wealth, and to form combinations to control it. ”

“ The fundamental propositions upon which this government professes to rest—that all men and women are born free and equal and entitled to the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—are in accordance with the general order of the universe below man, and are therefore of the highest possible authority.
That all are born free is a proposition that no one can question; but this freedom is general to all, and does not refer to the individual, nor entitle him or her to push his freedom so as to encroach upon the same freedom guaranteed to every other individual. ”

“ Such annihilation of time and space is entirely ahead of, and above, the era of gold, which must yield its sway to something more elastic, and consequently possible of better adaptation to the constantly varying requirements of the peoples. The world having been so long held in financial bondage to gold, is now approaching a period wherein it will rid itself of the yoke. A very few people in the world rule it. What of the thrones of Europe without the Rothschilds? and what of them if not for gold? The vast debts of those countries alone render crowns longer endurable. ”

“ In the system of special and class legislation causes of corruption and the downfall of governments may always be found; it is the bane of the nations, whence flows that subtle, entrancing poison that permeates all the arteries and veins of a country—so quietly and alluringly to the people, that, before its effects are suspected, the vital principle of the government is destroyed, and the lifeless form finally falls to rise no more forever ”

“ Let it be seen that no shirking of duty is permitted on the part of pretended labor representatives, and also let it be seen that all who lend themselves to the schemes of capital are properly shown up to the country.
Our interests are great and our country is dear to us, for it has cost us immense treasure and blood. Is it not worthy of being defended from all schemes, when so much has been required to construct and preserve it? To the care of laboring classes its preservation is now committed. Will they prove themselves worthy of the high trust? ”

“ All the false forms of the present must yield their sway to God’s command—“Let there be light.” The laws of God are never changed—though old as creation—they are ever new, ever sufficient for all the vicissitudes of life; they are ever full of wisdom, justice and love; they are written all over the face of creation, in the bosom of the earth and in the heart of man; they are uttered by the raging tempest that rocks the mighty ocean; in the terrible mutterings of the earthquake; in the fury of destructive battle, when hosts are hurled on hosts in fraternal strife ”

“ There is a great work the Labor Party can do. There are imperfections in our government, and these it should take up and remedy. It is a well-established fact, as every one knows, that a government that is not a representative of the minorities as well as of the majorities is not a government of freedom, equality and justice. If imperfections exist even in the much revered Constitution, it should not be held so sacred that none of its faults can be remedied. ”

“ Labor! labor! labor! physical, mental and spiritual labor!
Labor, therefore, is the fulcrum of the great lever of progress, lifting humanity from the material up to the spiritual realm. One short century ago nearly all physical labor was performed by the hands of man. Since then the mind has come up to the work, and rescued the body from the laborious servitude of former times; and now a single mind, directing a single machine, produces an hundred-fold more than it could when acting through its own personal machine. ”

“ Enforced virtue in any direction, except for the protection of the community, is not one of the principles of a free government; but everything that the government can do that will further the interests of the community, come legitimately within its sphere. And it is to this end and purpose that the Labor party should press its claims to recognition upon the representatives of labor.
The workingman makes the government, and therefore has it in his hands to unmake it. If the government is not what it should be, it is because the workingmen have permitted it to exist and not perform its duty. ”

“ Where could oppression hide itself? Where could the lusts of the flesh plot their treason against the sovereignty of the spirit, beyond the range of spirit vigilance—this new safeguard of human society, the eternal law of progress, which is now unfolding? ”

“ Are not their minds expanded to the comprehension of the great principles of governmental justice? Are they not better qualified to direct legislation now than the wisest among us? If they still live as spirits, if they have had better opportunities of obtaining wisdom and knowledge pertaining to earth-life than we—can this world avail itself of their assistance to establish on earth the government of heaven? ”

“ Why do they advocate any general government at all? The truth and the facts of the case are, that such doctrines as recognize the rights of the individual as superior to the rights of the community in which he resides, are subversive of the first principles of order. Suppose such principles governed the entire sidereal and solar systems, what chance among so many vast planets would our little earth have? It is saved from destruction because there is a Prime Power which compels them all into harmony of action and movement, whatever courses their individual proclivities would lead them to. ”

“ Such is the province of art, and man, in whatever department of nature he operates, is the artist, adding to her beauties, which she can produce by her laws, those which the evolution of higher ideas proposes. Thus art utilizes and beautifies all that nature produces. Nature alone could never produce a Central Park, nor the perfection in fruits and flowers that is now presented to please the taste and gladden the eye. No one will question the right of man to make from nature the most of beauty it is capable of, nor to make it most conducive to all his natural desires. ”

“ We are no special advocate of the introduction of Chinese or any other labor into this country; neither are we desirous of advocating any policy that will conflict with the interests of any laborer, but we are advocates, and always expect to be, of justice and equity to all people everywhere, because the time has come in the ages when we must begin to remember that we are all brothers under the sun, and that he or she who does not recognize and act upon this universal truth will, sooner or later, be obliged to learn it at the cost of dear experience. ”

“ When legislation shall conform itself to general principles, instead of sectional, local or personal policy, and when its course shall be shaped by such broad action, it may be safely prophesied that the government it represents will be perfect and perpetual. Commerce will then obey the law of progress, and rise from the petty policies of nations, which strangle its development and limit its benefits: it will rise to be conducted upon the dignity of principle, untrammeled by policy ”

“ As vanish the heavy mists of the morning before the radiance of the rising sun, so will vanish the clouds that hang around the minds of man, and shut out the rising spiritual sun, for whose “star in the East” wise men are continually watching; the sun that will rise higher and higher, and extend its rays wider and wider, until it shall enlighten the minds of all mankind, until the icebergs of ignorance, tradition and superstition are dissolved which now float in the ocean of progress—society, with its cankered, festering heart; commerce robbed of its legitimate function ”

“ The policy of a party that would be permanently successful must be one that will include all of the great principles of reform. If such a party is not shortly organized, there will be conditions developed which will make such a party a necessity, even without organization. It would arise as if by magic out of the conditions of the times, and leaders will rise and come to the front as though Heaven-directed, and they will be received by the people by acclamation. The force of elections will be dispensed with, and party trickery forever killed.
The whole substrata of society is in foment. ”

“ As the rising sun first 246gilds the mountain’s loftiest peak, next the hill-top, then glides along the inviting slope to the universal plain, where all creation rejoices under the refulgence of its noonday glories—so comes this rising light, to illumine the hearts and souls of all when it shall have reached the zenith of its mid-day glory. As the beams reflected from the mountain top are of the sun, and not the mountains, so are these spiritual rays of the spiritual sun, and not of the individual reflecting them, or through whom they may chance to shine. ”

“ Government, standing forth prominently as the grandest of all human conceptions and realizations, has in all times been the representative of civilization, and the principal means of its diffusion. Bearing this impress of importance, it may be well to examine the real significance of the term, or to find the relations it sustains to society. One fact meets us wherever we may search in the past—the fact of government Though it is one of the universal necessities and accompaniments of existence, it is extremely doubtful if its composition is realized to any considerable extent. ”

“ If the United States, as a nation, occupies any superior or conspicuous position in prophecy which is to make it representative—if it is the point around which consolidation into universal government is to begin, and from which control shall revolve until the world is its object—it becomes the imperative duty of our statesmen and legislators to extend the sphere of government until its limits are bounded by nothing that is detrimental to the general welfare of the people. ”

“ The head and the heart should act in concert; the head perceiving that the same general principles should be used to direct the forms of every department of life, and endeavoring to apply them to control humanity, should head the appeals of the heart, which, from its mainsprings of love and tenderness, feels, that the whole universe is bound together by the indissoluble ties of fraternity, and, therefore, should realize that as a father and mother, they should govern their children. Of these principles, government should be the true exponent, representative and administrator. ”

“ Springing from a common source and tending toward a common end, humanity must learn to progress on its course according to rule, to law and the requirements of order. These sustain the harmonies of the universe, and should be never-failing authorities for humanity to pattern after. Those who achieve the greatest conquests are they who can bring themselves into harmony with the principles that govern the movements of the innumerable worlds, no two of which are ever known to disastrously cross each other’s path. ”

“ It should be the first duty of the labor interest, in each State or national district, to select and elect one from that class that has calmly observed the workings of present systems, and who can show where the cause of existing ills lies. It is to the philosopher, and not to the politician, that the labor interest must turn its eyes, and though he be not smooth of tongue and glib of speech, he will lay such a foundation in law as will produce the conditions desired. Your present representatives, State and national, have shown themselves incompetent to the task you demand of them. ”