No army or navy in field, camp or ship has ever been taken better care of in a general sanitary, hygienic and medical sense than our Army and Navy in this gruelling war. The able and liberal way in which the physical, moral, mental, religious and recreational needs of the men have been covered by various bodies, military, medical, civic, and religious, has been the wonder of all our citizens who have visited our camps. And to this was undoubtedly due the cheerful and high spirits, the wonderful morale and fighting power which made themselves instantly felt on the battle-fields of Europe and so quickly brought the barbarous enemy to his knees in the glorious climax of Victory and Peace which we are now enjoying, and which we all firmly hope and believe will soon be followed by a Permanent and International Peace coextensive with the civilized world, for which great end, Mr. President, you have been working so ably, energetically and devotedly. And I feel sure that your master efforts with our own people and with our victorious Allies will soon bring about that League of Nations for the government of the world based on the eternal principles of reciprocal right and justice and the basic principles of American Institutions—Equality, Consent of the Governed, and Rational Liberty—for all persons in their inherent natural rights.
I, therefore, regret that I have had any criticism to make on this glorious record of our Army and Navy, but this criticism really concerns only a part of the medical profession in the Army and Navy, and one of its medical dogmas, and does not reflect on the rank and file of the military and naval forces of our country, a majority of which does not, I believe, approve this dangerous medical practice, or malpractice, of compulsory vaccination which has been forced by medical dogmatism on the Army and Navy, and which, I believe, clearly violates fundamental American principles and also stultifies our proud claim that this is a government of “Liberty and Justice for all.”
COMPULSORY VACCINATION CONDEMNED AS UN-AMERICAN
In compulsory vaccination there is obviously neither “liberty” nor “justice” and it is utterly opposed to the fundamental American principle of inherent human right to medical liberty and choice, and to sanctity of body, and it therefore fits properly only with some code of Prussianism—from which it has been in fact copied.
I would, therefore, now like to show by appeal to our great basic American Documents of Rights and Liberties that all forms of medical compulsion and dictation and compulsory vaccination are illegal and unconstitutional and also violate all true civic and medical ethics.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, OUR BASIC CHARTER OF AMERICAN RIGHTS, CONDEMNS ALL VIOLATIONS OF INHERENT NATURAL RIGHTS
The Declaration of Independence is, I believe, the greatest ethical and political document ever penned by human hand or human wisdom—the greatest document of Human Rights and Liberties, Basic Ethics, Civic Religion and Democratic Government ever written—and all expressed in its one essential paragraph, as follows:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.”
We have been accustomed to call this great document a “Declaration of Independence,” but it should more properly be called a “Declaration of Rights” because “Independence,” or self-government, is only one of the several “unalienable” rights declared in this great charter. It is in fact our great “Bill of Rights,” being our first Charter and Declaration of those essential, natural, inherent and ineffaceable rights of mankind, which all governments must respect, defend and enforce, and which cannot be ignored or invaded by any authority, organization or government whatever. It is indeed our American “Magna Charta” of fundamental rights and our first or Pre-Constitution preceding our formal Constitution, and, of course, equal to it as a basis for all law and government, and particularly expressing what may be termed our Pre-Constitutional Rights—that is, those rights which always existed by “Natural” and “Divine” endowment before any human laws, charters or constitutions were ever written; and it, of course, antedates, and therefore takes precedence even over our State and National laws and Constitutions, which, to be valid, must be based on the fundamental principles of inherent human and natural rights which are naturally and divinely and equally conferred upon all mankind. It must be remembered at this point that the official title of this great document is “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America,” which shows that it is the official statement or code of the foundation governing principles of the New Nation issued by its first Congress and has, therefore, the full effect of a “Constitution,” “Pre-Constitution” or “Bill of Rights.”