Keynote No. 3: SOVEREIGN RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE.
Under our Basic Charters, just quoted, the sovereign right and power rests in the People, and the Government has no rights or powers, whatever, except as conferred by the People. QUESTION: Where have our State or National Governments obtained the right to force any medical remedy or operation upon citizens against their will and consent? Where have these governments obtained the right or power to force an infectious and deadly disease upon the human body in defiance of the will and the right of the citizen? Have the people ever given up their most sacred essential and unalienable right to the sanctity and security of their own bodies and to their free choice and right of selection in the medical treatment of their bodies? This is surely one of the great “unalienable,” “reserved” and “retained” rights which the people have never given up to any government, and which the Legislature or police power has no right to invade. C. M. H.
Keynote No. 4: PREËMINENT RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL DECLARED BY U. S. SUPREME COURT.
“There is, of course, a sphere within which the individual may assert the supremacy of his own will, and rightfully dispute the authority of any human government, especially of any free government existing under a written constitution, to interfere with the exercise of that will.” U. S. Supreme Court in Vaccination case of Jacobson, 1904. Note: This decision also held that vaccination could not be legally forced upon any persons who could show that it was dangerous to their health or life.
Keynote No. 5: COMPULSORY VACCINATION IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
“It may be conceded that the Legislature has no constitutional right to compel any person to submit to vaccination.” Judge Woodward, of New York Appellate Court, in Viemeister case in 1903.
“If the Commissioner of Health had the power to imprison an individual for refusing to submit to vaccination, I see no reason why he should not also imprison one for refusing to swallow a dose. But the Legislature has conferred no such power upon him, if, indeed, it has the power to do the like.” Judge Gaynor in Supreme Court, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1894, case of Smith vs. Emery. This decision was fully sustained by the Court of Appeals.
Keynote No. 6: MEDICAL COMPULSION AND DOMINATION JUDICIALLY REBUKED AND MEDICAL FREEDOM ASSERTED BY NEW YORK COURT OF APPEALS.
“I concur in Judge Chase’s construction of the statute. But I would go farther. I deny the power of the Legislature to make it a crime to treat disease by prayer.” Decision of Chief Justice Willard Bartlett, of New York Court of Appeals, in “Christian Science” case of Willis Vernon Cole, 1917.
Keynote No. 7: GOVERNMENT HAS NO RIGHT TO FORCE A MEDICAL DISEASE OR OPERATION UPON THE PEOPLE.