In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp began printing one of the most important newspapers in American history, The Liberator, the purpose of which was to call for an immediate end to all forms of slavery and, starting in 1838, for the rights of women to the fullest possible extent. In these causes Garrison was one of the loudest and most important voices in the abolitionist movement, and an absolute radical in the cause of universal liberty and the immediate end of slavery, even to the extent that in a July 4, 1854 Independence Day speech he denounced the Constitution of the United States as “a Covenant with Death, an Agreement with Hell,” because it formalized the protection of slavery in the very foundation of the USA and burned a copy of it in public.
As can be easily imagined this did not make Garrison many friends with pro-slavery people. But that didn’t matter to him. Garrison was not interested in appealing to those who would compromise on the issue of slavery and human rights. He would “do what was right [and] let the consequences follow.” As Fredrick Douglas memorialized him, “It was the glory of this man that he could stand alone with the truth, and calmly await the result. …He was unusually modest and retiring in his disposition; but his zeal was like fire, and his courage like steel, and during all his fifty years of service, in sunshine and storm, no doubt or fear as to the final result, ever shook his manly breast or caused him to swerve an inch from the right line of principle.” Later in life he would refuse to run for election because of his moral opposition to the US government’s treatment of women and minorities as well as its warmongering. The system was corrupt and he refused to lend even the image of his support to it by being a part of it.
The reason Garrison was so dedicated, so zealous in the cause of liberty, justice, and righteousness was because of his enduring and powerful faith. As John Jay Chapman put it in his biography of Garrison, “The source of Garrison’s power was the Bible. From his earliest days he read the Bible constantly, and prayed constantly. It was with this fire that he started his conflagration. …So also, a prejudice against all fixed forms of worship, against the authority of human government, against every binding of the spirit into conformity with human law all these things grew up in Garrison’s mind out of his Bible reading.” Garrison’s faith was in God and Garrison would never bend or back down from the purposes of justice as God gave him light to see them. As the man himself put it:
“My conscience is now satisfied. I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen;—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD. “
So, what does this have to do with today? After all, the launch of this work comes over 150 years after the last issue of the original Liberator was released. The reason for this is straightforward- Garrison’s work of liberty is incomplete.
Today we all labor in servitude to the governments that rules us and the politically connected economic elites that control those government positions. No liberty that any man or woman holds is held freely, every human right is restricted, constrained, oppressed, and controlled by the government, by the State. On its own authority the State spies on, tracks, monitors, and records the phone calls, text messages, locations, and actions of millions of people, everyday without their knowledge or consent. Under the threat of violence -of being beaten, caged, sexually molested if not sexually assaulted, and even murdered- the State extorts the wealth of the public to fund its organs of control at home and its invasions, occupations, and warmongering abroad. The State gets away with the mass slaughter of millions of men, women, and children in foreign nations with impunity. Its leaders are dictatorial, cruel liars who commit a host of evils under the guise of political programs supposedly to “protect the people.” It lies about its history and purpose with the express cause of controlling the minds of the public and to reduce them to servility.
John Locke, the eminent English political philosopher who Thomas Jefferson got all his best ideas from, argued that:
Whenever the legislators endeavour to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and violence. Whensoever therefore the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society; and either by ambition, fear, folly or corruption, endeavour to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people; by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and, by the establishment of a new legislative, (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own safety and security, which is the end for which they are in society.
Second Treatise of Civil Government, Section 222
Through its violence, by its lies, and as a consequence of its mass deceptions the State has placed itself at war with the people of each nation across the world- individually and collectively. It wages war against the rights and liberties of the people over which it claims the authority to rule and on those abroad which through its wars it seeks to dominate and coerce into subservience. And the purpose of The Latter-day Liberator is not only to call attention to all these evils, to reveal the man behind the curtain for who he really is, but also to promote the ideals and actions that will lead to total abolition – the liberation of all people from the intellectual and actual domination of the State. The Lord Jesus Christ taught that it is through the knowledge of truth that we are made free. That is our goal – to help free the masses by telling the truth.
I am sure to many people reading this that sounds like a radical if not insane goal. Our indoctrination into service to those in power starts so young and is so deeply embedded that it seems impossible to many that life and civilization could exist without it and therefore anyone against the State must be against civilization itself. Therefore, to want to end it is seen as crazy. At one time the ending of slavery and equal humanity of people of African descent, things seen as givens today, were viewed the same way. Abolitionists have always had to contend with this struggle. That it exists does not encourage us. It has the exact opposite effect. Such opposition encourages us in our work as we seek to enlighten and liberate the hearts and minds of men. The Latter-day Liberator is my widow’s mite in that endeavor.
Garrison’s mentor, Ephraim W. Allen taught Garrison as an apprentice that a newspaper “ought to aspire to something higher than merely pampering the public appetite for the news,” that it should “be made the vehicle , and a most effective one, too, for disseminating literary, moral, and religious instruction.” Garrison learned at a tender age that it is not enough to do something- the thing done must be just and righteous, that it is not enough to merely promote something factual- the thing promoted should uplift, enlighten, and liberate humanity, mind and soul. In this pursuit The Latter-day Liberator will follow the guidance of the original. The authors and editors here are very much inspired by their faith in the scriptures and words of prophets, ancient and modern. Their words and ideals will be a foundation for the approach we take to combating the evils of the State with the truths of the Gospel of God. Those same truths will also be explored herein to try and lift the eyes and enlighten the minds of those who read out articles as well as the authors themselves. The greatest liberty can only be found in Christ and His doctrines are the cornerstone of all that we do and cannot be constrained by national or party loyalty.
As a result of this, we of The Latter-day Liberator are anti-Statist, anti-authoritarian, nonpartisan, and voluntaryist, embracing nonviolence, civil disobedience, and the replacing of the organs of the State with private, parallel institutions designed to make the State obsolete in every manner. The universal rights to Life, Liberty, and Property will be championed at every turn against their diminishment by the State and any other worldly ideology of man. If you are a Republican or a Democrat, an American or a Frenchmen, if you place any loyalty equal to or above the Truth, above the Liberty given us by God and the truths taught in the Gospel, then this place will offend you. But, if you are willing to open your eyes, unstop your ears, and soften your heart, if you’re willing to put aside all the nationalistic and political propaganda you’ve been fed since childhood to search for the truth, then you will hopefully find some aid, comfort, insight, and enlightenment here.
In seeking to promote the liberty and truths of God first and foremost we will promote any literary, spiritual, or artistic expression which advocates for the liberty and enlightenment of mankind. In addition to the news we will explore messages of liberty and human goodness that can be found in movies, music, books, paintings, poems, and all other forms of human expression. We will also publish upon the doctrines and principles of the Gospel, especially as they stand in opposition to the doctrines and ways of the governments of the world.
Just as with the original at its inception, The Latter-day Liberator finds itself a lonely voice in a fractured and weak movement against the evils of the State. And just as with the original we will be the lone “voice of one crying in the wilderness” in the cause of liberty, peace, and prosperity due to all people no matter their creed, culture, nation, race, or sex until a veritable Forest of Truth has sprung around us, proclaiming in a unified chorus with us the eternal principle that all people everywhere are the Children of God with inherent rights gifted to them by their Father and that no man, institution, or nation has the right to violate or control. Even though we are unapologetically religious, all those who have “sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny” to the mind and body of Man have a voice and a friend herein.
