Individual Liberty - Evernote

and right, - that is, to respect the rules of transaction which the nature of things
indicates to them as alone capable of assuring them, in the largest measure, wellbeing,
security, peace.
"Do you wish to adhere to their compact, to form a part of their society?
"Do you promise to respeet the honor, the liberty, and the goods of your brothers?
"Do you promise never to appropriate, either by violence, or by fraud, or by usury, or
by speculation, the product or the possession of another?
"Do you promise never to lie and deceive, either in justice, or in business, or in any of
your transactions?
"You are free to accept or to refuse.
"If you refuse, you become a part of the society of savages. Outside of the
communion of the human race, you become an object of suspicion. Nothing protects
you. At the slightest insult, the first comer may lift his hand against you without
incurring any other accusation than that of cruelty needlessly practiced upon a brute.
"On the contrary, if you swear to the compact, you become a part of the society of free
men. All your brothers enter into an engagement with you, promise you fidelity,
friendship, aid, service, exchange. In case of infraction, on their part or on yours,
through negligence, passion, or malice, you are responsible to each other for the
damage as well as the scandal and the insecurity of which you have been the cause:
this responsibility may extend, according to the gravity of the perjury or the
repetitions of the offence, even to excommunication and to death.
"The law is clear, the sanction still more so. Three articles, which make but one; that
is the whole social contract. Instead of making oath to God and his prince, the citizen
swears upon his conscience, before his brothers, and before Humanity. Between these
two oaths there is the same difference as between slavery and liberty, faith and
science, courts and justice, usury and labor, government and economy, non-existence
and being, God and man."
Liberty's Declaration of Purpose
Volume 1, No. 1, of Liberty appeared on August 6, 1881 and here is its salutatory:
LIBERTY enters the field of journalism to speak for herself because she finds no one
willing to speak for her. She hears no voice that always champions her; she knows no
pen that always writes in her defence; she sees no hand that is always lifted to avenge
her wrongs or vindicate her rights. Many claim to speak in her name, but few really
understand her. Still fewer have the courage and the opportunity to consistently fight
for her. Her battle, then, is her own, to wage and win. She - accepts it fearlessly and
with a dessly and with a determined spirit.