Circles and Squares

Meditation on John Brown and his Provisional Constitution and Ordinances 

Emanuel Pastreich

November 28, 2018

John Brown (1800-1859)

Opening of the “Provisional Constitution and Ordinances”

1858

“Whereas slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States, is none other than the most barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of one portion of its citizens against another portion, the only conditions of which are perpetual imprisonment and hopeless servitude, or absolute extermination, in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence. Therefore, we, citizens of the United States, and the oppressed people who, by a recent decision of the Supreme’ Court, are declared to have no rights which the white man is bound to respect, together with all other people degraded by the laws thereof, do, for the time being, ordain and establish for ourselves the following Provisional Constitution and Ordinances, the better to protect our persons, property, lives, and liberties, and to govern our actions.”

Emanuel Pastreich

November, 2018

“Whereas the use of fossil fuels,throughout their entire existence in the United States,is none other than the most barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of one portion of its elites against the great majority of citizens, creating conditions of perpetual imprisonment in a catastrophic system of consumption and of pollution of the environment that will render the Earth uninhabitable,leading to absolute extermination, in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence.

Therefore, we, citizens of the United States, and the oppressed people who, by a recent decisions of the Supreme’ Court, are declared to have no rights in the face of multinational corporations pushing fossil fuels, we, bound to respect, together with all other people degraded by the laws thereof, do, for the time being, ordain and establish for ourselves the following Provisional Constitution and Ordinances, the better to protect our persons, property, lives, and liberties, and to govern our actions as we free ourselves from the death march of a fossil fuel driven economy.”