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Benjamin Tucker and His Periodical, Liberty

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Jaurnolo/Li&~~wionStudla, Vol. I.No.4, pp. 301-318. Pn8amon Prnr 1977. Printdin Grcal Britain BENJAMIN TUCKER AND HIS PERIODICAL, LIBERTY CARL WATNER Baltimore, Maryland In a letter to the New York Tribune on Avrich, Liberty was simply "the best Anarchist December 4, 1898, Benjamin Tucker (1854- paper in the English language". 1939) described himself as an Anarchist. "I was The 403 issues of Liberty which appeared the first American - I may say the first have been reprinted and made available by the Anglo-Saxon - to start (in 1881) an avowedly Greenwood Reprint Corporation. They are a Anarchistic newspaper printed in the English great source of information both to the historian language. I am still the editor, publisher, and and the philosopher. Here we can analyze the proprietor of that paper. It is everywhere history of the individualist Anarchist move- regarded as the pioneer and principal organ of ment, its reaction to contemporary events of the modern individualist Anarchism. I either am, or late 19th and early 20th Centuries, as well as have been, the publisher of the chief Anarchistic view the actual ideological content and doctrinal works in the English language. I am the author changes occurring in the movement. To study of the most widely-accepted English text-book Liberfy is to touch practically every social of Anarchism. I have enjoyed the friendship, question. (132-5) " . Liberty carried had the benefit of the instruction, and. have translations and articles from many of the most carefully studied the works, of those Americans seminal thinkers of both Europe and from whom the Anarchists have largely derived America."[z' While its subscription list probably their beliefs - Josiah Warren, Stephen Pearl never exceeded 1000, it had a world-wide Andrews, Lysander Spooner, and Colonel circulation and impact, considering that it William B. Greene. I am the translator into sparked individualist Anarchist movements in English of some of the principal works of P. J. Russia and Australia, among other places. Proudhon, who was the first writer in any Tucker made it clear in his first issue that his language to declare himself an Anarchist. I am "journal will be edited to suit its editor, not its acquainted, perhaps better than any other man, readers. He hopes that what suits him will suit with the English-speaking Anarchists of the them; but, if not, it will make no difference. No United States. It will be admitted then, I hope, subscriber, or body of subscribers, will be that I speak by the card." (359-3)' allowed to govern his course, dictate his policy, Tucker's Anarchist credentials were impec- or prescribe his methods. Liberty is published cable as he plainly stated. In August 1881, he for the very definite purpose of spreading started a "little fortnightly journal called certain ideas, and no claim will be admitted, on Liberty. Its purpose was to contribute to the any pretext of freedom of speech, to waste its solution of the social problems by carrying to a limited space in hindering the attainment of that logical conclusion the battle against authority . object. We are not afraid of discussion, and . "1'1. This journal appeared more or less shall do what we can to make room for short, continuously under the guidance of Tucker, first serious, and well-considered objection to our in Boston, and then in New York, until 1908 views." (1-1) "The purpose of Liberty, boiled when ~ucker'sbookstore and composing room down to its ultimate essence, is the abolition of were destroyed by fire. In the words of Paul authority . Liberty denies the authority of .All parenthetical footnotes refer to Liberty by Whole anybody's god to bind those who do not accept Number (issue number) and then page number. it through persuasion and natural selection. 308 CARL WATNER Liberty denies the authority of anybody's State venture to crush her. And happy are those who, to bind those who do not lend voluntary having dared to receive her in her degraded and allegiance to it. Liberty denies the anthority of frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by anybody's 'public opinion', 'social custom', her in the time of her beauty and glory." (1-4) 'consensus of the competent', and every other In order to fully appreciate Tucker and fashionable or scholarly despot, to step between Liberty, one must have an understanding of how the individual and his free option in all things." he and his readers understood the word (2-2) Anarchism. "Anarchism means no government, As the proprietor and editor of Liberty, but it does not mean no laws and no coercion. Tucker was responsible for its opinions and This may seem paradoxical, but the paradox editorial content. While realizing that he was vanishes when the Anarchist definition of never the sole owner of Anarchism, Tucker did government is kept in view. Anarchists oppose dominate his paper, and accordingly came to government, not because they disbelieve in influence the Anarchist movement. However, he punishment of crime and resistance to aggres- well realized that anarchism existed before he sion, but because they disbelieve in compulsory did and would continue to exist after he passed protection. Protection and taxation without away. "I can interpret it only for myself", he consent is itself invasion; hence Anarchism wrote. (327-3) Although gentlemanly and shy in favors a system of voluntary taxation and his personal relations, Tucker was the "plumb- protection." (212-2) Tucker was one of the very line of plumb liners" in his editorial role. He first individuals in the world to advocate the tolerated no deviation from the straight and true idea "that defense is a service, like any other path of Anarchy as he understood it. His service", and that such a service could and intention as editor was to "win first the should be provided by private agencies sup- attention, and then the admiration and assent, ported by voluntary patronage. (104-4) of the most thoughtful thousand people in the This advocacy was in turn based on a certain world, though at the same time it may for the definition of government, namely "government moment shock, horrify, prejudice, madden, and has been defined . as the subjection of the alienate all others . " (367-1) E. 0.Brown 'non-invasive' individual to a will not his own." elaborated this point: "I have seen much in (156-4) The State (or government) is in its very Liberty that I agreed with, and much that 1 nature a compulsory institution to which all are disagreed with, but 1 never saw any cant, forced to belong to and which all are compelled hypocrisy, or insincerity in it, which makes it an to support. (26-2) Liberty's supporters were the almost unique publication." (370-7) sternest enemies of invasion of person and Tucker's outlook and optimism are illustrated property. "We make war upon the State as the by relating one item which he saw fit to include chief invader of person and property, as the in his first issue. Headlined, "The Penalty of cause of substantially all the crime and misery Treason to Liberty," it related the story told by that exist, as itself the most gigantic criminal Ariosto, in which a fairy, by some mysterious extant." (25-2) law of her nature, was condemned to ap- The starting point of the entire Anarchistic pear at certain seasons in the form of a foul philosophy was the absolute sovereignty of and poisonous snake. Those who injured her in every individual. (28-2) The only way to respect the period of her disguise were forever excluded the sovereignty of the individual would be to from the blessings which she bestowed when in refrain from invasion of every person's body her power. To those who befriended her, in and justly acquired property. Tucker realized spite of her loathsome aspect, she afterwards that criminals and invaders of person and granted all their wishes and made them happy in property would remain, even in the absence of every way. "Such a spirit is liberty", concluded formal governments, but "Liberty's position Tucker. "At times, she takes the form of a [was] that, of the really serious and important hateful reptile. She 'grovels', she hisses, she acts of invasion of individual sovereignty, at stings. But woe to those who in disgust shall least nine-tenths are committed by organized BENAMIN TUCKER AND HIS PERIODICAL, LIBERTY 309 State governments or through privileges granted whatever he will with himself and his property, by them, and that the governmental idea, with for his body here, and his soul hereafter, so long the State as its principal embodiment, is the as he does not trespass upon the equal freedom efficient cause of almost all of our social evils." of any other person." (24-2) In still an earlier (86-4) Thus Anarchism was not only a protest issue was enunciated the cardinal right of all against every form of human invasion (94-5). individuals to do anything and everything which but in particular against the aggression of they may chose voluntarily to do so long as it is organized government. done at their own cost. (7-2) Liberty's advocacy of Anarchism had both a "Th[e] question of rights and obligations was positive and negative side. The negative side was thoroughly threshed out in Liberty in the year simply the call for the abolition of politics. 1887." (198-2) Although Tucker maintained (25-2) Liberty proposed to abolish government that he had not changed his fundamental and substitute in its place voluntary arrange- opinions since he had begun Liberty, it is ments.
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