High treason against our Constitution

Preface

I am a farmer by profession. Coming from Germany, I landed at Galveston, Texas, on the 18th of October, 1898. My family consisted of a wife, four sons and three daughters. It increased in the year 1900 to one son more. The black land of north Texas had been recommended to me as the non plus ultra (the utmost) of fertility of soil and surety of crops. I settled down at Southmaid, a German settlement, 10 miles west of the city of Sherman, Grayson county.

In the year 1899 I grew my first crop as a farmer in the state of Texas. In the first days of August of that year, a herd of two hundred and seventy-five head of cattle broke down before my farm, on the verge of succumbing from thirst. For miles around there was no water. I had a good tank full of water. From compassion for the mute creatures, I ordered the cowboys to drive the herd into my pasture, let them drink to their fill, let them rest for awhile and then to go on. They did so, and drove the cattle into the pasture. An hour later, the owner of the herd appeared and made me the proposition, for a small sum of twenty-five dollars, to allow him the privilege of having his cattle graze in the stubble fields of wheat, and use the straw upon this field as fodder for his animals. I agreed, under the condition that the cattle be herded carefully day and night so as not to eat up my corn and cotton. He consented to it willingly. The next night I observed that his cowboys laid the wires down that divided the field from the pas-

PREFACE

ture wherein the cattle were held over night, and the whole herd stampeded into the field. In this stampede two wires lying on the ground broke, and the same night my best mule got his foot caught in this loose wire, and his foot was cut off. For over four weeks the herd remained on my farm, against all my protestation, destroying everything I had raised. I was a so-called greenhorn. I did not know that the handling of a shotgun freely is prima ratio ruris, that is, the first law of the land. I brought a damage suit in the amount of eleven hundred and fifty dollars.

In the first trial the jury gave me to-wit : Seven hundred and fifty dollars damages. The opposing counsel was the "Honorable" Hamp P. Abney, lawyer. And my opinion is that his scheme was to make as much money for himself from the suit as possible, because his client was a rich man. The "Honorable" Hamp P. Abney, through his technical and unprofessional schemes, fixed it so that this case was tried to-wit, eleven times. I won every case. In the last judgment the jury gave me one hundred and forty-two dollars and seventy-five cents damages!!! Hamp P. Abney appealed to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in my favor, so is justice handled in the state of Texas. The collection of this money is still pending in court.

January, 1903, I rented a small farm five miles southeast of Denison, Grayson county. In January, 1904, I bought on time the so-called Cutler farm, of 172 acres of land, and the Henoch Duncan farm, joining the farm that I had rented. On these two possessions I have continously lived ever since.

The first of January, 1906, the Denison Bank and Trust Company, of which I had bought the Cutler place, induced thereto by the lawyer Hamp P. Abney, after his

PREFACE

own statement, at Sherman, wrongfully and illegally to gave title of the Cutler place to my oldest son, thereby depriving my other seven children of their rights to this farm. As soon as I discovered the fraud I foreclosed the deed and brought suit for trespass, to try title, forced thereto by dictates of duty as justice. The lawyers, Hamp P. Abney and Hassel, at Sherman, have made every effort to hinder the trial of the case. To get me out of their way they had me tried for insanity and sent me to the Terrell asylum for the insane, where I have been restrained of my liberty fifty months against all protestation, reasoning and remonstrance on my part. During my illegal imprisonment in the insane asylum Hamp P. Abney and Hassel illegally disposed of my homestead, the Henoch Duncan farm. To prevent my objections, I was put under guardianship of a woman, without my knowledge or consent.

On the 30th of March, 1916, I left the insane asylum upon demand of one of my sons. In this situation I have decided to write this book. Its contents settle the question as to my sanity, expose the criminals on bench, bar and insane asylums connected with the crime imposed on me, and deal out justice.

In the interest of the community I deemed it proper to write some items reciprocally related with the subject to which my readers should pay their most earnest attention.

THE AUTHOR.

Fellow Citizens : — Man is a curious being. A miracle in his entity, he is the product of the highest creative power of nature. His foot alone is a marvel of mechanical construction, an unsolved riddle to the most ingeniously gifted architect and engineer of our time. In this perfect machine nature humorously put two souls fighting one another constantly. Half, one loves oneself eagerly; half, one hates oneself bitterly. As proof, we see that all men in all walks of life seem to have about the average human virtues and faults, the cause of sympathy or antipathy between them.

When the young lady who typed this article at my dictation, looked with her large deer-like eyes into my cold ones, with a glance of comprehension, half astonished, half frightened at what the next sentence might reveal, I had the pleasant sensation of a wholesome warmth that crept into my old heart. In her charming, well-developed femininity I saw a splendid specimen of the carrier of our race, and I loved mankind with indiscrimination. She has honestly gained the fruit of her strenuous labor as far as money is concerned ; but I feel deeply indebted to her, and compelled to avail myself of this opportunity publicly to express my grateful acknowledgment for the faithfulness of her service to me. Tact, the controlling principle of life, forces me not to tell her name, respecting therein her wish. Girlish modesty is like a violet, a hidden whisper of blue under a green leaf, transmitting its brilliancy and warmth into spiritual cheer even in the heart of a man on the pleasant side of sixty-six years, where everything vanishes away, commending kind consideration and courteous attention.

In dealing with the lawless elements on bench and bar of the Grayson County Court from personal experiences with this court, the appearance of my person in the foreground is inevitable. If experience is the basis of all wisdom, my counsel to adjust the deplorable obvious dishonesty prevailing in our court house, is priceless; Through exposure of the wrongdoer and wakened conscience of the people, who are responsible for the condition, coupled with effectiveness that really produces results, our courts can be placed on the high moral level that they should occupy. What is logical is not impossible. For this purpose we Americans should acquire the wonderful ability of the Germans for team work, in turning every individual's energy to a common end.

I shall stand forever for civic righteousness and the reduction to the minimum of all forms of vice in the community, conscious that life is not enjoyment, but hard labor.

Is there anything worth while in which hard work is not the requisite for success? He, who cannot, or will not, co-operate in useful activity and in amelioration of living conditions in the community to which he has the privilege to belong, is ripe for the graveyard as useless. The life of the individual citizen is valuable only when it is conscientiously and actively employed for the attainment of the common good.

If what I shall say is true in substance and in fact the people have a right to know it, and if what I shall say is not true, the people have a right to call me a professional defamer of the character of my fellowmen who socially, financially and professionally enjoy an elevated position in the community, and high standing in certain society. From my charges against the Protestant church of the United States are excluded the German Lutheran confessions. To wish me more psychology and a better frame of mind for this enterprise is gratefully accepted. I frankly admit unreservedly the limitations of my work, conscious of possibilities beyond my horizon !

Truth usually achieves its best work in the limelight of unrestricted publicity and not under the mysterious fetters of a pretentious officialdom in court house and asylum. Men who are entrusted by the people to enforce law, are not thereby made chartered individuals to humiliate, degrade, imprison, or cold-bloodedly kill citizens as I saw done in the Terrell Asylum, contrary to law. If they, do so, they are guilty of misconduct so grossly as to necessitate their removal from bench, bar, and insane asylum for the honor, peace, prosperity and good government of the community, as not possessing the spirit of fair play, that ought to charm and lead the conduct of every public man toward the respondent.

As the " Mountain' ' did not come to "Mohammed" in spite of his kindest invitation, ' ' Mohammed ' ' resolved to go to the "Mountain," the lawless element of the Grayson County Court, which will not recognize that the court house belongs to the people for the purpose of administering justice, but consider it their private domain to serve their selfish aims by an unwarranted upholding of the usurped power of the courts, I, therefore, have decided to take the good people of Texas into my confidence, outside of the walls of the court house, by writing open letters concerning each one of those violators of the law, for the purpose to disbar them from practising it. The form and expression of each letter is not intended to neglect, or willfully disregard the rules of politeness and propriety, but is forced upon me by necessity to attain the purpose tactfully. Tact defined is a peculiar skill and adroitness in doing and saying exactly what is required, or suited to the circumstances. Law, right, justice and humanity cannot be compromised nor can they be violated by telling the truth. Thoroughness and the will to get to the bottom of the thing regardless of selfinterest, is my aim.

When my style of writing seems to be incoherent and rugged at times, not being well versed in handling the English language, I must ask the indulgence of the reader, still taking the liberty to recommend him to read my articles, word for word, in the way of a connoisseur of wine-drinking, who slowly sips the blissful gift of nature and God 's noble creature. Each one of my articles will have a leading thought, which habit I will follow even in the open letters to the persons addressed at the end of my articles. Deprived of my property, I am a poor man. Legally, I am a pauper in the full meaning of the word, even the suit that I wear is a gift of grace of the State of Texas, to cover my nakedness when I left the madhouse. I have not realized the philosopher's dream, a youth of labor with an age of ease. Therefore, I have decided to charge the public a moderate fee for a copy of my articles to repay the expenses of printing and distributing.

I beg leave to extend my personal good wishes for the continued welfare and happiness of my readers. Keenly sensible of the cordial feelings between us, I assure them of my desire and aim to reciprocate and foster that feeling.

I remain, with the sincerest respect and regard, Your obedient and humble servant,

Karl Dignowity Zur "Wehre.

II. Not enjoyment and not sorrow

Is our destined end and way; But to act that each tomorrow,

Find us farther than today.

Let us then be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate ; Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wajit.

— Longfellow.

What we need is an improvement in the moral standard of the men who compose the bar, to raise its standard. Saloons are regulated by law, but lawyers are also licensed and there are more laws in our statutes relating to attorneys than to saloons. If I did not believe in the moral adjustment of the minds of honest men, I should not believe in popular government, which I, to the best of my ability, shall support. I, therefore, regard it as patriotic to respect and promote the honor of the country by not allowing such misdemeanor of our servants in office, and by exposing their misconduct and bringing them to justice. Indifference to duty involves immorality and crime. In questions of right and wrong to be neutral is vicious. Duty is a word that is all-inclusive so far as principle and integrity are concerned. The German, Immanuel Kant, the founder of Critical Philosophy, taught the gospel of moral duty as a categorical imperative. He who does not feel constrained to bend every effort to the fulfillment of his duties and obligations, especially as a public servant, who solemnly has sworn to do so, evidently has a conscience more or less moribund leading to anarchy, outrage and crime! I go so far as to profess that a public officer who only does his duty, does not do all his duty.

The performance of what I consider my duty in writing a series of articles to the public, is simply a fulfillment of principle, a demand made necessary by human needs in our community, which every thoughtful person should recognize as such, as an approving conscience dictates. Some will say I would far better have waited with my accusations and charges against the lawless element on bench and bar and insane asylum, till my trials came up. This habit of going to the people first and taking evidence afterwards, is denounced by the legal lights as against all rules of pleading a case, being the habit of a demagogue. They forget that they are our hired servants and we their sovereigns. I am part of the people, and as our lawkeepers, collectively speaking, do not do their duty in removing from bench and bar those criminals that besiege it, I take the liberty to perform their job, appearing as prosecuting attorney, who tries his case with printers' ink in the open, outside the walls of the court house, because the men inside are involved in the crime and constitutionally are not compelled to act against themselves. For home consumption, they will preach that it is not fitting to talk about my past, and that silence about all things connected therewith is more significant and sublime, indicating not only a great mind, but also a decent propriety and discretion, than the most noble and expressive eloquence.

There was a certain temperament given to me in my cradle and I am resolved to live out that temperament to the full, till I reach the end of my life. I therefore beg permission of those lawless elements to solve the mystery of their lives by ' ' indiscretion. ' ' Prudery was not among the gifts that were laid in my cradle. The members of the rotten system of the judiciary in the Grayson county court, imagine they own the heaven of intelligence. I claim to have leased these premises and to be in lawful possession of them. There will not be any controversy from their side on the issue involved, because the issue is dead at the moment when the printers' ink has dried on my articles. To say, that I intend to prejudice the minds of the readers of my articles on the subject is sheer nonsense, because there is no demand for their judgment. I need no support from anyone. I am strongest alone, a little force will break that which was wrecked before. I pursue my aim with steadfastness of purpose and the unfaltering faith in its ultimate achievement — those criminals must leave the bar.

I am not a man who sails in a ship that carries a false flag. I therefore inform the public of what may not generally be known, that on the nineteenth of March, 1916, the highest authority on mental disorder in the state of Texas, "His Magnificence," Dr. George F. Powell, Superintendent of the largest eleemosynary institution in Texas, at Terrell, reputed to be of the clearest water as a psychiater, has officially rendered a judgment as to my mental condition. On that date, Dr. George F. Powell, after a search so painful and so long for him, lasting fifty months, finally discovered the undeniable phenomena upon which the symptoms of my insanity rest, more mercifully expressed — my psychic wound. His judgment reads, "I cannot take any responsibility for my patient, Karl Dignowity Zur Wehre, in leaving this madhouse. He is insane, a dangerous man, not safe at large ! " I suppose Dr. George F. Powell intended with his "official judgment' ' about my mental condition effectually to cloak his own rascality, and the rascalities of the lawyers, Hamp P. Abney, Hassel and accessories sub crimine against the eventuality that I should prosecute them for the crime committed on me. Verbally, he explained to me that he had come to "this opinion" by his ' ' ignorance ! " a self conviction which I was too polite to contradict. I courteously asked him if he permitted me, too, to have an "opinion." Dr. George F. Powell eagerly consented to that, unconscious that he thereby contradicted his "official opinion" as to my sanity, giving prima facie proof of his ignorance whose cause is not only ill will, with the least particle of human sentiment, but also an erroneous belief from lack of solid professional learning. The acknowledgment of ignorance is a virtue, the intuitive feeling of the want of reason that demands improvement. Ignorance is not hopeless as long as it is soft — but nothing can be done with it after it sets and hardens. It therefore had cost me about a hundred official dispatches to persuade ' ' His Magnificence ' ' to come to the perception of his uselessness as a physician. As my arguments were convincing, I succeeded! I was the only patient Dr. Powell has ever had with whom he was afraid to contend. A useless physician in an insane asylum is the most pitiable and abject thing on God's beautiful earth! unfit even to herd the good, the pious, the hearty and the trembling ! !

I make no comment on my assumed insanity by a sinister liar, but to brand me as a dangerous man, not safe at large, intellectually, is too much honor. There was some uneasiness in the camp of the lawless element on bench and bar of the Grayson County Court at the thought that I should become a free man again, and the important discovery of Dr. Powell as to my mental condition therefore, I presume, brought a great relief of the painful tension of their brains, and totally pacified the minds of the * c Honorable ' ' lawyers, Hamp P. Abney, Hassel, and all accessories sub crimine. I was now absolutely harmless, and the truth was muzzled nicely and ingeniously. Among all sufferers from disease, the insane deserve the greatest sympathy from their fellow men. "Well knowing the warm heart, the open hand, and some faults of the good people of Texas, I feel sure to enjoy their sympathy with the deplorable condition of my mind, as officially stated by Dr. Geo. F. Powell.

"Sanity is not a certainty, but a balance. Man is neither a brute nor is he a spirit ; man is both. He who wholly alludes to one form or the other is crazy. ' ' This fine definition on the subject of sanity is from Dr. Frank Crane, New York, whose useful occupation is to teach the people how to practice philosophy. Splendid in its simplicity and pointedness, his definition is understood by every man with common sense, even should it not be much. According to this definition, sanity is not a certainty but a balance, craziness, an unbalance to the extreme of either side of human nature, the brutal or the spiritual side ; insanity is a declination more or less serious from that unknown demarkation line. The forms of insanity are changeable in their manifestations and infinite in their varieties. The essential constitution and the mind of an individual are born, not made. We do not inherit our traits exclusively from our parents; we inherit them from our grandparents and our greatgrandparents as well. We are nothing but a blend of traits, mixtum compositum non singulum sumus! Each individual consequently carries within his system a multitude of characteristics that he gives no evidence of having and of which he is quite unconscious. As I was positively conscious of not being insane, my long incarceration in a madhouse failed in its purpose to cause a psychic knockout that leaves one speechless and in a stupor. The perspicacity, the shrewdness, the firmness, the readiness and the facility of my expressions in these communications, supported by good nature and good will to mankind, give ample proof of my sanity beyond the peradventure of a doubt.

To be sure, there is a strain of insanity in every human being. It is there latent in him today, but no man is absolutely certain that this strain of insanity may not become patent in him tomorrow — and so is ingenuity! The correct definition of the word insane is ill. That ill persons, because they are ill, should lose their rights as citizens and electors, as the lawless element on the Grayson county bench and bar, for selfish aims, is so eager to preach to the people, is the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the public, and on those unfortunate persons that suffer from mental disorder.

It is therefore the inalienable right of an American citizen, even if he is ill, to criticize a public officer, or any other mere public servant, supposing the criticism is fair by being true. As for myself, I solemnly repudiate the maxim held up by our imposters in public service, conscious or unconscious of their identity, that a criticism must be tolerant in expression and not violent in word. I am not quite conversant with the English language, but am eager to acquire its graces of style. I therefore shall make it my duty to compensate my lack of eloquence by the sincerity of the expression. I shall call a scoundrel a scoundrel with scientific accuracy of the meaning of the word, no matter whom it concerns, therein claiming the inalienable right of humankind to be brutally frank, a right recognized by the entire world.

I am for the greatest individual freedom consistent with human rights, in obedience to the constitution of the country and ever ready to do honor to a servant of the people, who indeed faithfully performs his duty and willingly carries out his solemn promise to obey their will, not to boss them. This politeness towards public servants is but right feeling controlled by common sense. As it is a part of wisdom and safety for me to rely upon reason and appeal as a man who was fifty months confined in a madhouse, the greater part of this time occupying a punishing ward where misery rules, I am glad that finally the time has come to enjoy the special privilege again to be engaged in open discussion coram publico with the lawless element — faithfully expressed, I should say consummate scoundrels — on bench and bar of the Grayson County Court, and in the administration and management of the Insane Asylum at Terrell, the so-called ' ' Old Reliable Bughouse, ' ' as some members of the legal talent significantly call this institution of charity. Sometimes there is a queer way of upsetting theory and prognostication against all pronunciamentos ! My case is only a solitary instance of the maladministration of Charity and Justice in Texas. The result is certain to be most interesting.

III

Let us have faith that right makes might! In that faith let us dare to do our duty, as we understand it.

Abraham Lincoln.

Dear Reader ! "He, who does what circumstances allow him, does well and acts nobly; angels could do no more.' ' Please see in me a plaintiff sitting on the witness chair, representing Americanism, that means equal justice to all. I am conscious of the meaning of my oath to tell the truth. I have brought suit against national vanity, fatuous boastfulness, greed, inhumanity, unfairness and injustice.

The Supreme Court of the State of Texas has rendered the following decision: "It is the inalienable right of the plaintiff to give testimony and argument on the witness chair, as exhaustive as he may see fit, that the Court and the jury can well understand his cause. No trial judge shall hinder him in the execution of this, his constitutional right. ' ' I shall make use of my right !

At the beginning the Lord created Heaven and earth and spoke, as Genesis reports. After this report at the beginning, therefore, was the word. At the beginning of the United States was the deed, the Declaration of Independence and the Ringing of the Liberty Bell on the 4th of July, 1776.

The expression, the Declaration of Independence, is an unhappy one, in the mind of unripe men, arousing the conception that we are as free by this document as the bird upon the twig to do just what we please. We are not free. Liberty is a relative term. If being free does mean free-being to desire, the hog indeed is free that rolls into the mire. The sentence ought to read: The Declaration of Independence of the English Rule, or the Declaration of Equality of Man. That this great document only stands for the latter meaning shows its solemn character.

It is self evident, that good language shall express itself in terms that are pointedly relative in intensity to their intended meaning. The only exception to this rule is the demand of human society that the more disagreeable an idea is, from the moral and social point of view, the more far-fetched and concealed shall be the linguistic symbol we employ to designate the thing in question.

There is no such a word in the Code of civilization as "Independence." The Declaration of Independence strictly states that all men are created equal, proclaiming the equality of men. That means, all men are alike born naked and miserable. The first cry of the baby is the cry of pain caused by the expansion of the lung cells that are filled with air by the process of breathing, and all misery that the mother suffers in giving birth to the child is forgotten by her when this cry indicates the birth of a perfect child, whose value is difficult to exaggerate. Its little soul is a part of the soul of the universe, its little body represents the idea of the immortality of the human race and that whole little personality, in its staggering helplessness, is the light that enlightens and warms the world. By nature, as shown, men are essentially equal and have substantially equal claims upon one another. It is virtue alone that makes the difference — of course those who have no sight have not been given a square deal ! !

The declaration of the equality of man further states, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; among those are life, liberty and happiness. Effectively to secure those rights, government is instituted. Without this government, the strong would deny the weak, the rascal deny the honest man, these rights, hindering them fraudulently and viciously of their undisturbed enjoyment. — So the declaration of the equality of man states ; adding that if the government does not perform its functions properly, the people shall have the right to alter it by removing the wrong and holding up the right.

As we find authority in that immortal document to protect the citizen whenever the purpose for which government was organized fails, so it is the right and the duty of every citizen to see to it that the government should be administered in such a way as to insure every individual the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness means a state of well being in continuance; a state of moral, mental, and physical health, free from irksome cares ; and enjoyment of pleasures after hard work, attendant upon well being in human nature — panis et circenses, i. e., bread and enjoyments.

Trusting this renowned document of the declaration of equality of man, I voluntarily gave up the effective protection of the German empire and became a citizen of a Republic called the United States of America, whose constitution claims to protect, to secure, to grant, the sanest, most just, the most humane, and the most democratic government in existence on the globe. To this purpose I made a contract in writing with the State of Texas, acting as agent of the United States, wherein the United States solemnly promised faithfully to protect my life, my property, my personal liberty and not to hinder the pursuit of my happiness, provided I do not therein unlawfully interfere with the rights of others, and provided I am faithful to the duty of citizenship — Facts are stubborn things and truth is valuable in the attainment of the object sought !