From the Archives Archives - Page 2 of 11 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Nathaniel Peabody Rogers on an Anti-Slavery Tour Of the White Hills (1841)

February 16, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

An 1841 Anti-Slavery Tour Of the White Hills Nathaniel Peabody Rogers CE-4706 A CORVUS EDITION ANTI-SLAVERY JAUNT TO THE MOUNTAINS [from the Herald of Freedom of Sept. 10,1841.] We meant, from the several stages of our hurried expedition, to drop back for the Herald some of its incidents, detailed while events and impressions were fresh. But we could not find opportunity. The rapidity of our movement and constant occupation during intervals of anti-slavery action, compelled us to defer attempting it, and we must now give our readers a dull reminiscence. In company with brother Garrison, we left Concord the […]

Francis D. Tandy, “Free Competition” (1896)

December 12, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

FREE COMPETITION By Francis D. Tandy The vastness of the subject which we are to consider [herein] will compel me to take for granted many theories which are controverted. While I believe that every assertion I shall make is capable of demonstration, yet [space] will not permit me to attempt to demonstrate them. Therefore, I would crave your indulgence in advance for many seemingly unwarranted assertions which I may make. The great question of the nineteenth century, which has well been called the modern Sphinx, is that of the readjustment of society upon more equitable principles. In spite of the […]

Wallace E. Nevill, “God and Government” (1899)

December 5, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

FREE SOCIETY LIBRARY NO. 3 _______________________ GOD AND GOVERNMENT THE SIAMESE TWINS OF SUPERSTITION “Man, know thyself; presume not ‘God’ to scan— The proper study of mankind is Man.” BY Wallace E. Nevill DECEMBER, 1899 God and Government. In disputation the force of reason is to be sought for rather than authority, since the authority of a teacher is often a disadvantage to those who are willing to learn, as they refuse to use their own judgment, and rely implicitly on him whom they have chosen for a preceptor. A great name is not a substitute for an argument. […]

Ernst Steinle, “The True Aim of Anarchism” (1896)

December 5, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE TRUE AIM OF ANARCHISM and THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF THE THEORY OF ANARCHISM. by ERNST STEINLE (1896) THE TRUE AIM OF ANARCHISM: A REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD AND OF MANKIND; AND THE TEACHINGS RESULTING THEREFROM. BY E. STEINLE. What is the aim and purpose of men, in giving up a free and independent life as individuals, in order to combine into groups, and form a society which must necessarily restrict to a certain degree the liberty of the person? Doubtless the aim can be nothing else than to secure the welfare of all those who […]

Henry Addis, “Essays on the Social Problem” (1898)

December 5, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

Henry Addis was an anarchist-communist, a co-editor of the Portland Firebrand, and a contributor to several of the anarchist papers published in the western United States. In this collection, part of the Free Society Library, edited by another Firebrand alum, he weighed in on a variety of subjects, from communism to natural selection, and from state socialism to crime. Corvus Editions reprinted this collection in pamphlet form: pdf FREE SOCIETY LIBRARY NO. 6 ESSAYS ON THE SOCIAL PROBLEM:“WHY I AM AN ANARCHIST”—“DOWNFALL OF NATIONS”—“HEREDITY”—“SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST”—“THE WAR SPIRIT”—“ANARCHY AND THE FARMER”—“MODERN COMMERCE”—“POPULAR GOVERNMENT”—“POLITICAL ACTION”—“THE TYRANNY OF MAJORITY RULE”—“BREAD OR […]

M. R., “Gigi Damiani” (1954)

November 16, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

M. R., “Gigi Damiani,” Resistance 11 no. 4 (February, 1954): 5-6. Gigi Damiani Gigi Damiani, one of the outstanding men of the anarchist movement, died in Rome, Italy, November 16, 1953, at the age of 77. The death of Comrade Damiani is a loss which will be felt throughout the Italian anarchist movement, for he was one of its most outstanding thinkers and writers, especially in the field of journalism, And the loss will be felt in many other countries where his varied writings appeared from time to time in anarchist periodicals, Although self-educated, Damiani was a keen interpreter […]

William Henry Van Ornum, “Mating or Marrying, Which?” (1898)

October 30, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

The distinctions of sex seem to extend throughout all nature, certainly through all animate nature; and there is reason to believe that it does not stop at the limits of what is termed the inanimate. In fact, who can say that nature is anywhere inanimate? Every atom of the universe seems to possess the power of selection, by which it is able, under favorable conditions, to attract to itself certain other atoms widely diverse from itself in physical properties, which, together form new substances and manifest new attractions. Along with these attractions and their correlative repulsions goes the active interplay of natural forces, which, throughout every part of the universe, is working evolutionary changes not unlike a progressive growth. Even deep below the ocean’s bed, or far beneath the foundations of the everlasting hills, under pressures so great that they cannot be estimated, heat, electricity and magnetism, combined with chemical reactions are changing old forms into new ones in a manner strangely suggestive of vital action. Even there, the separate atoms are moving freely among each other and arranging themselves in definite order, building up crystals always according to certain patterns, each after its own kind.

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Peter Kropotkin, “The New Era” and “The Crisis of Socialism” (1895)

October 30, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

Peter Kropotkin, “The New Era,” The Rebel 1, no. 1 (September 20, 1895): 3. Peter Kropotkin, “The New Era,” The Rebel 1, no. 2 (October 20, 1895): 10-11. Peter Kropotkin, “The Crisis of Socialism,” The Rebel 1, no. 3 (November, 1895): 24-25. Peter Kropotkin, “The New Era,” The Rebel 1, no. 3 (November, 1895): 28-29. Peter Kropotkin, “The New Era,” The Rebel 1, no. 4 (January, 1896): 34. Peter Kropotkin, “The New Era,” The Rebel 1, no. 6 (March-April, 1896): 59-60. The New Era The following address is one with which Kropotkine opened a series of meetings in […]

Samuel M. Jones, “A Plea for Simpler Living” (1903)

October 27, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Arena 29 no. 4 (April 1903): 345. A PLEA FOR SIMPLER LIVING. Samuel Milton “Golden Rule” Jones The following words from a flaming advertisement recently I caught my eye: “Why don’t you marry the girl? We’ll help you.” They were from the advertisement of an instalment house—that is, a business house that sells furniture on the instalment plan, generally asking a very large price in the first place, only to take it back in many instances after those who have purchased have partly paid for it, and after months and perhaps years of agony in trying to extricate themselves […]

Ernest Crosby, “Golden Rule Jones: Mayor of Toledo” (1906)

October 27, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

Golden Rule Jones: Mayor of Toledo By ERNEST CROSBY (1906) Publishers’ Note This sketch of Golden Rule Jones appeared originally in The Craftsman of Syracuse, New York, and is now reprinted, after revision, with the consent of the Editor of that magazine. I IN BUSINESS It was in Chicago in the winter of 1895-1896 that I made the acquaintance of Samuel Milton Jones. We had both been invited to some kind of a conference and were entertained at one of the “settlements” of the city. His fame had not reached me at that time, for he had not yet entered […]