To Every True and Brave Man

A message from 1882 and Thomas Ainge Devyr

Thoughts addressed to every true and brave man:

The Creator either made the land,
Or He did not.
He made it for the dukes and lords,
Or He did not.
He made it for the people,
Or He did not.

To pay Rent to earth-lords, is it a DENIAL OF THE CREATOR?
Or is it not?

Is it hard to know His will?
Or is it not?
If you know His will
And do it not,
Are ye brave and true men,
Or are ye not?

Thomas Ainge Devyr (1805-1887)
Chartist, journalist, land reformer, and author.

"Away with all ambition that has not for its object the welfare of the human race.”
Devyr, The Odd Book of the Nineteenth Century, Or, "Chivalry" in Modern Days: A Personal Record of Reform--Chiefly Land Reform, for the Last Fifty Years. Greenpoint, New York: by the author, 1882.
American Section, p. 33

”… if my worst enemy does public good I will give him credit for it, as I would denounce my best friend if he did public evil.”
Devyr, The Odd Book of the Nineteenth Century, Or, "Chivalry" in Modern Days: A Personal Record of Reform--Chiefly Land Reform, for the Last Fifty Years. Greenpoint, New York: by the author, 1882.
American Section, p. 34

”What a prompt, generous, chivalrous spirit had governed the Republic, had not the worst men in the country everywhere rushed in and taken control of it — effectually barring the best men out.”
Devyr, The Odd Book of the Nineteenth Century, Or, "Chivalry" in Modern Days: A Personal Record of Reform--Chiefly Land Reform, for the Last Fifty Years. Greenpoint, New York: by the author, 1882.
American Section, p. 38

“The triumph of MACHINE LABOR, and ultimate prostration of HUMAN LABOR — cannot be averted. As well might we attempt to alter any of Nsture’s fixed laws, as to arrest the onward march of science and machinery.

The question then recurs — How shall escape from an evil which is impossible to avert?

Nature is not unjust. The POWER who called forth those mechanical forces did not call them forth for our destruction. OUR REFUGE IS IN THE SOIL, in all its freshness and fertility — OUR INHERITAGE IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN in all its boundless wealth and infinite variety. This heritage once secured to us, the evil we complain of will become our greatest good. Machinery, from the formidable rival, will sink into the obedient instrument of our will.

In Europe God’s Inheritance to man is usurped by the Aristocracy. There the disinherited man has nothing to fall back upon.

If to the Common’s fenceless limits strayed,
He drives his flock, to pick the scanty blade,
Those fenceless fields the sons of wealth divide,
And even the bare worn Common is denied.*

But in this Republic, all that the Creator designed for man’s use is ours — belongs not to an Aristocracy, but to the People. The deep and interminable forest; the fertile and boundless prairie; the rich and inexhaustible mine — all — all belong to the People -- are held by the Government, in trust for them. Here, indeed is the natural and healthful field for man’s labor. Let him apply to his MOTHER EARTH, and she will not refuse to give him employment — neither will she withhold from him, in due season, the fulness of his reward.

Your committee does not recognie THE AUTHORITY of Congress to shut out from these lands such citizens as may not have money to pay ransom for them. Still less do we admit THEIR AUTHORITY to sell the Public Domain, to men who require it only as an engine to lay our children under tribute to their children to all succeeding time. We regard the public lands as a CAPITAL STOCK, which belongs not to us only, but also to Posterity. The moment Congress or any other power proceeds to ALIENATE THE STOCK to speculators, that moment do they attempt a cruel and cowardly fraud upon posterity, against which, we here enter our most solemn PROTEST. Go to Europe. Mark the toil, the rags, the hunger, and the despair which is the sole inheritance of its countless millions, while a few thousands run into the opposite extreme of luxury, excess, and guilt unspeakable ! Look at this horrible state of things, and whilst you do so remember that the same fate awaits our own Republic, if we permit a landed aristocracy to grow up among us.

The first great object, then, is to ascertain and establish the right of the people to the soil to be used by them in their own day, and transmitted — AN INALIENABLE HERITAGE — to their Posterity.

That once effected, let an OUTLET be formed by the Government that will carry off our superabundant labor to the salubrious and fertile West. In those regions thousands, and tens of thousands, who are now languishing in hopeless poverty, will find a certain and speedy independence. The labor market will be thus eased of the present distressing competition, and those who remain, as well as those who emigrate, will the opportunity of realizing a comfortable living.”

Synopsis of the “Report of the National Reform Party,” 1844.
in Devyr, Thomas Ainge. The Odd Book of the Nineteenth Century, Or, "Chivalry" in Modern Days: A Personal Record of Reform--Chiefly Land Reform, for the Last Fifty Years. Greenpoint, New York: by the author, 1882.
American Section, pp. 39 - 41

* The Deserted Village, by Oliver Goldsmith

“On this basis we founded The National Reform Movement that eventually led to the Great Civil War.” (Devyr’s comment on the above passage).