Aristopia/Chapter 10
One of the most effective means by which the few and idle rich oppress the many toiling poor is by the monopoly of land. Ralph Morton's reading had shown him this truth illustrated by the history of all civilized peoples. But he had before his eyes in England so flagrant an example that it needed no reading to enforce the truth. That great robber, William the Norman, had parceled out the land of England among his robber favorites, who had subdivided them among their favorites, with the burden of some conditions; and so on downward went the division, the burdens all the while increasing till at last they fell with crushing force on the poor tillers of the soil and the equally unfortunate disinherited, driven altogether from the soil. So horrible an example of a great mass of people robbed of their natural rights seemed, by the force of custom and the decorous forms of law, so right and proper that only here and there, adown the centuries, could be heard a voice like Thomas More's protesting against it.
Morton was sure that, sooner or later, America would be parceled out among kings' favorites, just as Europe had been, and with like wretched results. He determined to prevent such results so far as was in his power. He could see no way to do it effectually while allowing private ownership of land. To limit the amount of land one man might own presented insuperable difficulties. How could a just limit be fixed? Twenty acres of agricultural land miodit be no more than one man and his family needed; but twenty acres in a city, or on which a city might grow up, would so enrich a man and make him master of his fellows that he could oppress and corrupt them by thousands. A thousand acres of mountain land, fit only for grazing, might be none too much for a family; but a thousand acres of good agricultural land would make a man a landlord with a horde of slavish tenants. So Morton's constitution provided that, in the Commonwealth, there should be no private ownership of land, including waters, forests, and mines, except the title he had acquired from the Virginia Company and the title he expected to acquire from the king to other and broader lands. This title he was to hold during his life as a means of insuring the carrying out of his views; but, although the ultimate title of the land rested in him, the practical ownership should be in the Commonwealth, from whom the citizens should hold the land. No agricultural land should be leased for longer than fifteen years at one lease, and no urban land for longer than fifty years. These leases could be renewed, so that a family could make a home and have a security for its continued possession—something which private ownership does not give to the nominal owner, as millions of poor men have found to their sorrow. The Commonwealth might, until it needed the rent for revenue, allow its members land rent free, but no more to one man than he and his family actually tilled or used without hired help.
The next great instrument for enriching a few at the expense of the many was, Ralph Morton saw, the traffic in merchandise. No other thing, except monopoly of land, could so encourage a selfish and greedy disposition as this traffic. Next to usury, it is the delight of that strange vampire race, the Hebrews. The merchant class in England had then acquired but little of the tremendous power it afterward attained; it needed the foresight of Thomas More or Ralph Morton to see the danger to an ideal society—a human brotherhood—in this traffic. So Morton's constitution provided that all traffic in merchandise in the commonwealth should be carried on by the public agency. A bureau of trade appointed by the governor should import and export all goods. Public stores should be established, with storekeepers and clerks appointed by the governor, in which goods should be sold to the inhabitants of the commonwealth, and their produce bought for resale or export. The people might exchange their commodities with each other, or sell them to private persons, but no person should buy to sell again. The profits on the purchase and sale of goods should not be excessive, and should be public revenue for public expenses.
In Ralph Morton's mind were vaguely outlined plans for making all sorts of machinery run by water-power do the work of millions of human hands. If a few men could obtain possession of the waterfalls, and by wealth, somehow acquired, could own the machines, they would become the masters of both the workmen who attended the machines and those who were displaced by them. So the constitution carefully guarded the waterfalls from private ownership and provided for the public ownership of factories run by water-power.
In these provisions for the public manufacture and sale of goods Morton builded better than he knew. Not even his genius, nor any other less than inspired, could have foreseen the evils which a manufacturing and trading age would produce: the evils of "shoddy" goods; of articles made for sale and not for use, and useless; of fatal defects glossed over by the manufacturers and hidden by lying salesmen; of goods deliberately damaged a dime's worth to the user that the manufacturer might save a cent; of deadly poisons in food, drink, and drugs—yes, in wearing apparel and the paper of bedrooms, the health of thousands ruined and their lives endangered that manufacturers and tradesmen might make a few cents from each victim. And the deepest pity of it all is that the most frequent and most injured victims are the poorest, most needy, and most helpless members of society.
As another guard againt the undue accumulation of wealth in the hands of individuals, the law of primogeniture was abolished. A deceased person's property was to be equally divided between his heirs—his wife (or, if a woman, her husband) and children; if any of the children were dead leaving children of their own, such grandchildren to inherit their parents' share per stirpes and not per capita. If there were no wife (or husband) or descendants, the property to go to the parents or grandparents of deceased; if no such ancestors, it was to escheat to the commonwealth, for collateral relatives could not take. No person should leave more than ten thousand dollars (about two thousand pounds) to one heir. If his property amounted to more than that sum for each heir, the balance was to escheat to the commonwealth. As no person then in the colony (except the Mortons) expected to have two thousand pounds, nor even dreamed of having so much as to leave two thousand pounds to each of his children, no objection could be made by the settlers to this provision. This provision could not be evaded by a will or a donatio causa mortis—death-bed gift.
Roads and bridges must be public property; no private toll road or bridge would be allowed.
A code of laws should be proposed by the governor as soon after his election as practicable, and adopted or rejected by a vote of the colonists at a public meeting. After that, laws were to be enacted by a Congress elected by the people; but no act of Congress should be a law unless approved by the governor, or, if vetoed by him, unless repassed by a two-thirds vote of Congress. To prevent too frequent changes of laws, Congress should have but one session in three years, unless called together by the governor on account of an emergency. As representatives would sometimes misrepresent the people, provisions were made by which the people themselves could initiate legislation, and certain classes of laws of a radical or fundamental character were to be submitted to a vote of the whole people.
It is needless to recite the details of the constitution relating to the necessary officers of the commonwealth, executive, legislative, and judicial, and their election or appointment.
The electors were to be every male citizen over twenty years old, unconvicted of felony, and all widows, being citizens, over thirty years old. Other women over twenty could vote for school officers. Morton considered these provisions an entering wedge for greater privileges for women. After the first day of January, 1612, any person not on or before that date a resident of Mortonia must reside in the colony five years to acquire the rights of a citizen and elector.
Any amendment to the constitution must he first passed by a two-thirds vote of Congress and then receive a majority vote of the electors of the commonwealth before taking effect; but no amendment could he adopted during the life of the first governor without his approval.
The Constitution was submitted to the members of the colony and adopted without change, without a murmur of dissent; and Ralph Morton was named governor for life.
The code of criminal laws Governor Morton proposed differed radically from the laws then in force in England, where most crimes were punished with death, although death in different forms, from beheading and hanging to burning at the stake and boiling in oil. Mutilation, such as cutting off the right hand and ears, slitting the nostrils, boring the tongue, and branding, was common. The so-called crimes of blasphemy, witchcraft, sorcery, and idolatry were punished by burning to death. The Morton Code proclaimed that the object of punishment was to protect, not to revenge, society; that where possible it should contemplate the reformation, not the destruction, of the criminal; that savage and bloody punishments and tortures were brutalizing to the whole people and worthy of savage and heathen, not of civilized and Christian, people. No crime except murder and arson of a dwelling at night was to be punished with death, and that death in no form except hanging. Other crimes were to be punished in proportion to their enormity. The code was silent as to witchcraft, blasphemy, sorcery, and idolatry. Though the people wondered at so mild a code, they adopted it by a large majority. In the minority was the clergyman. Mild as he was, he thought it well to burn some people.
Foreseeing the danger to the colony from the savages armed with firearms, the Morton Code provided that any person convicted of furnishing to an Indian any firearm or gunpowder, or teaching any Indian the use of firearms, should suffer imprisonment at hard labor (in chains until a prison should be provided) for three years, and then be banished to the West Indies. If he returned he was to suffer death. Severe penalties were provided for selling swords, or knives with blades more than three inches long, or with sharp points, or axes, or hatchets to Indians. Every firearm in the possession of a resident of the colony was to be registered, and he might be called on to produce it at any time. The sale of gunpowder was to be recorded like the sale of poison.
The Morton Code provided for public schools for all the children of the colony, making attendance compulsory. All teaching in these schools was to be in the English language.