1893 Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Manifesto of the Dynamiters (1893)

February 12, 2026 Shawn P. Wilbur

Manifesto of the Dynamiters (1893) A lot of the material that we have explaining the strategy of the attentateurs of the 1890s comes from trial statements, but there were some other documents written in support of the various attacks. In the sidebar, you’ll find a link to a brief “Manifesto of the Dynamiters,” originally published in French, in London, apparently early in 1893, since it refers to Ravachol’s bombing of “the buildings of the magistrates” as “yesterday.” In tone, this is very much in line with Emile Henry’s “there are no innocent bourgeois.” Whether or not this is good theory, […]

Daniel Saurin, “Order through Anarchy” (1893)

February 4, 2026 Shawn P. Wilbur

I have seen the title L’Ordre par l’Anarchie — published in the “Bibliothèque Anarchiste” of La Révolte — in the back pages of various anarchist communist papers from the 1890s, but had never tracked it down… it is a very interesting attempt to construct an anarchist ethics on a “natural rights” foundation…

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Jean Grave, “Moribund Society and Anarchy” (1893)

February 24, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] MORIBUND SOCIETY AND ANARCHY TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF JEAN GRAVE BY VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE [With a Preface from the French edition by Octave Mirbeau] [English translation published 1899] —– PREFACE. “Moribund Society and Anarchy” first appeared in France about a decade since, published by P. V. Stock, printer of numerous works pertaining to Anarchy. The conscience (?) of the French army, which the Dreyfus affair has since revealed in all its delicate scrupulosity, was immediately incensed by the chapter entitled “Militarism,” and the author was speedily arrested, tried, and sentenced […]

“Voltairine De Cleyre at Greensburg” (1893)

August 11, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

For the Boston Investigator. VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE AT GREENSBURG. Mr. Editor:—In the little city of Greensburg, some thirty miles east of Pittsburgh, there are a few brave, strong souls who are making war on God and his adjutants with a zeal which only those who have a principle at heart can do. About a month ago your subscriber, being invited to deliver a lecture under the auspices of their union, found herself shaking hands with the ungodly trinity of officers one April night, after a long day’s ride though the perpetual wonder of the Alleghany mountains. Very sad, gray-brown, sorrowful […]

George Schumm, “Benj. R. Tucker—A Brief Sketch Of His Life And Work” (1893)

August 8, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

BENJ. R. TUCKER—A BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORK. ‘ By GEORGE SCHUMM. BENJ. R. TUCKER, whose portrait is the frontispiece of this issue of the Magazine, was born in South Dartmouth, near New Bedford, in Massachusetts, April I7, 1854. His parents were in comfortable circumstances, and belonged to the enlightened portion of the community. In politics, his father was a Jeffersonian Democrat; in religion, both his father and his mother were radical Unitarians and as such members of W. J. Potter’s church. Mr. Tucker’s maternal grandfather was a great admirer of Thomas Paine. Thus it will be seen […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Dyer D. Lum” (1893)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

DYER D. LUM. BY VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. DYER D. LUM, poet, philosopher and revolutionist, whose portrait appears as the frontispiece of this number of the Magazine, was born at Geneva, N. Y., February I5, 1839. In these days when the cry of “foreigner” is hurled at every one who dares to form a conception of society without government, it is perhaps worth while to trace the descent of a man so prominent in the extreme radical movement. In the year 1732 Samuel Lum came to this country from Scotland. Daniel Dyer Lum, or, as he afterwards wrote it, Dyer Daniel, […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, “In Hora Mortis Nostrae” (1893)

July 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

“IN HORA MORTIS NOSTRAE.” ON Wednesday, March 15th, Mrs. Ellen Harker died at Reading, Penna; and with the going out of her breath one of the stanchest and most long-tried friends of liberty of thought and speech went out into the great unknown. Philadelphia Liberals, to whom hers was a familiar figure for so many years, will feel that they have lost one of their central lights, have parted with one of those dear grandmothers of the movement whose white hair and kind smile denied the oft-repeated accusation that there is no veneration or reverence in the worshippers of liberty. […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Economics of Dyer D. Lum” (1893)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

If Dyer D. Lum were living I doubt whether the articles of Mr. Black, recently copied by the Twentieth Century from the “Australian Workman,” would elicit anything further from him than a hearty laugh. Mr. Lum had a very keen appreciation of the ludicrous and the richness of being classed in company with Victor Yarros as a Communist would have touched what he called his “Sense of ticklety” sufficiently to have compensated him for being subjected to the treatment of such a reviewer. He can, indeed, well afford to be accounted as “lacking in understanding” by this “turgid and tangled” […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Some Nihilists I Have Met” (1893)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

Some Nihilists I Have Met The word nihilist is so generally associated with darkness, secrecy, dynamite, assassination and blood, that had someone whispered five minutes before the encounter, “You are about to meet a Russian nihilist,” I should, no doubt, have hastily retreated to the shelter of law-abiding domiciles, far from the dirty, tortuous, downtown quarter, where, amidst a labyrinth of alleys and deceitful little streets that mockingly led against walls, and then turned back into one another, I found myself one snowy afternoon, picking my way somewhat disgustedly with no very clear idea concerning my exact whereabouts. One thing, […]

Victor Yarros, “Anarchism: What it Is and What it Is Not” (1893)

August 30, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

IT was an observation of John Stuart Mill’s that to know a thing it is necessary to realize, not only what it is, but also what it is not. Applying this definition or test to that passage of Mr. Thomas B. Preston’s paper on “Are We Socialists?” (ARENA, December) in which he states and criticises the principles of anarchism, we find ourselves entitled to affirm that Mr. Preston scarcely possesses such familiarity with, and comprehension of, the essential doctrines of anarchism as would justify confident criticism of that school. What is anarchism, and who are the anarchists? Loosely speaking, there […]