約翰‧亞當斯
(JOHN ADAMS)

自由和知識
Liberty and Knowledge

(American Memory Collection, Library of Congress)

讓我們大膽地去讀，去想，去說，去寫……讓知識的每一道閘門都打開，讓知識的源泉暢流。

約翰‧亞當斯(1735一1862)生於麻塞諸塞，畢業於哈佛學院，學過法律，教過初級中學，並獲得了律師資格。1765年亞當斯在《波士頓公報》上發表文章抨擊《印花稅法》，自此他便積極參與殖民地的政治。這些文章以《論宗教法規》和《封建法律》為題發表在一起。以下便是這些文章的摘要。

儘管亞當斯批評英國的政策，但他還是為那些被控在1770年波士頓大屠殺中殺死五個殖民地居民的英國士兵辯護；結果指揮官和幾個士兵都被宣判無罪。他這樣心甘情願地站在令人討厭的一邊辯護並沒有妨礙他的政治生涯。1774年，他當上第一次大陸議會的代表。他也是由托馬斯‧傑斐遜組成的《獨立宣言》起草委員會的成員。亞當斯是美國第一任副總統，後來又當選為總統(1797－1801)。1800年競選總統時被托馬斯‧傑斐遜擊敗。他和傑斐遜都是在美國獨立五十週年紀念日──1826年7月4日去世的。

 ……凡是人民普遍有一般知識和覺察能力的地方，專制統治和各種壓迫就會相應地減弱和消失。人類肯定有高尚的靈魂，而且在人性中也有同樣的原則，即建立在博愛基礎上並為知識所珍視的崇高原則；我是說對權力的貪戀常常是造成奴役的原因，而任何時候只要有自由存在，這種貪戀也是要求自由的原因。如果正是這個原則一直在激發著世上的王公貴族使用各種欺騙和暴力手段擺脫對他們權力的所有限制，那麼同樣也是這個原則一直在激勵著百姓去追求獨立，爭取將大人物的權力限制在公正和理智的範圍內。

窮人的確遠不如大人物成功。他們難得有機會去組成聯合併發揮他們的力量。由於沒有文化知識，他們難以形成和支持一個固定的反對派。不過大人物們已經知道這是人類的秉性。於是在各個時代，他們都極力阻止那些被他們稱為群氓的百姓得到有關他們的權利以及侵犯他們的權利的知識，並且剝奪了他們維護自己的權利、矯正侵犯他們的權利的行為的權力。我所說的權利，無疑是指在世上任何政府成立之前他們就有的權利，是人類法律無法廢除或限制的權利，是宇宙偉大立法者所賦予的權利……

如果人民沒有一般的知識，自由就難以得到維護。人民有天賦獲得知識的權利，因為無所不能的偉大造物者已經賦予他們理解能力和求知的慾望。但是，除了這種權利之外，他們還有一個權利，一個無可爭議、不可讓與、無法廢除的神聖權利去獲取最令人畏懼和羨慕的那種知識，我指的是瞭解他們統治者的品質和德行。對於人民來說統治者只不過和律師、代理人和董事一樣。如果他們的事業、利益、和信任被陰險地背叛了，或者被不負責任地虛耗了，那麼人民就有權利取消他們自己所授予的權威，並任命更能幹、更好的代理人、律師和董事。在最底層人民中保留獲取知識的手段對公眾來說比保留全國所有富人的財產更重要。這對富人本身以及他們的後裔甚至更重要。唯一的問題是這是否要由公眾出錢，如果是，那麼富人無疑應當按與其他公眾負擔同樣的比例出錢，也就是說，按他們財富的比例出錢，況且這些財富的安全是用公共費用來保護的。但是沒有一種獲取消息的手段比新聞報導更神聖、更為北美居民所珍視的。人們已經採取措施鼓勵印刷技術的發展，使任何人都能很容易、很便宜、很安全地把他的思想與公眾交流……

讓我們大膽地去讀，去想，去說，去寫。喚起各階層人民的注意，激發他們下定決心，讓他們都去注意教會的和世俗的統治基礎和原則。讓我們研究自然法規，探求英國憲法的精神，閱讀古代歷史，思考希臘和羅馬的偉大史例，對照我們英國祖先的品行。我們的祖先已經為我們保衛了人類的固有權利，即反對國內外暴君和篡權者，反對專制國王和殘酷的神父，總之，反對人間和地獄之門的權利。讓我們閱讀、回顧、銘記我們自己更直系的祖先在離開他們土生土長的國家，來到這淒涼的荒野時的意圖和目的。讓我們審查那種把他們趕出家鄉的權力的性質和那種壓迫的殘酷性。讓我們回顧他們令人驚歎的不屈不撓精神，回顧他們所遭的苦難──食不果腹，衣不蔽體，寒冷不堪，而這些他們都堅忍地承受了。讓我們回顧他們在野獸和野蠻人帶來的危險之中，在他們有時間，或有金錢或物質去經商之前，清理場地，建造房子，種植糧食，飼養牲畜的艱苦勞動。讓我們回顧那些一直支撐著他們默默忍受所有艱難困苦的世俗的和宗教的原則、希望和期待。讓我們回顧一下，正是自由，正是為他們自己、為我們和我們的後代爭取自由的希望征服了所有的挫折、危險和考驗。讓我們在這幾個部門裏的人都進行這樣的研究，尤其是法律、知識和宗教的合適保護人和支持者應該進行這樣的研究！

讓我們的講壇迴盪著宗教自由的主張和意見。讓我們聽到由於無知、極端貧困和依賴，總之，由於政府和政治的奴役使我們的良知處於受奴役狀態的危險。讓我們看清我們面前人類真實面目的輪廓。讓我們聽到人性的尊嚴，聽到在上帝造物中人類所處的崇高地位。讓我們聽到人們說同意受奴役就是褻瀆神的信任，在上帝看來這就像損害我們自己的榮譽、利益和幸福一樣使他生氣。讓我們聽到人們說萬能的上帝已經從天上賦予人類自由、和平和親善！

讓法庭宣佈那些從遠古時代傳下的「法律、權利、權力的寬大策略」。讓法庭告訴世人我們的祖先為捍衛自由所作的有力鬥爭和無數犧牲。讓人們知道他們原來的權利、他們原來契約上的條件是和帝王的特權平等的，而且是和政府同時並存的。讓人們知道我們的許多權利是固有的而且必不可少，早在國會存在之前人們就同意以這些權利為金科玉律並把它們確定為預先必備的權利。讓他們從人性的構成，從知識和道德世界的組成方面去探求英國法律和統治的基礎。這樣我們就會看到真理、自由、正義和博愛是其永久的基礎，如果這些可以被拿掉，那麼上層建築當然就會被推翻。

讓各個團體的和聲都加在一起組成一個共同的快樂音樂會。讓每一篇演講都來談自由和道德之美，都來談奴役和邪惡之醜陋、卑鄙和惡毒。讓公眾的爭論都變成探究統治的依據、性質和目的，以及保留善剷除惡的手段。讓我們把有關權利的主張以及對自由的感覺通過對話和正或演說銘刻在溫和的思想裏，並向遠近各處傳播。

一句話，讓知識的每一道閘門都打開，讓知識的源泉暢流。

Liberty and Knowledge

Wherever a general knowledge and sensibility have prevailed among the people, arbitrary government and every kind of oppression have lessened and disappeared in proportion. Man has certainly an exalted soul; and the same principle in human nature--that aspiring, noble principle founded in benevolence, and cherished by knowledge; I mean the love of power, which has been so often the cause of slavery--has, whenever freedom has existed, been the cause of freedom. If it is this principle that has always prompted the princes and nobles of the earth by every species of fraud and violence to shake off all the limitations of their power, it is the same that has always stimulated the common people to aspire at independency, and to endeavor at confining the power of the great within the limits of equity and reason

    The poor people, it is true, have been much less successful than the great. They have seldom found either leisure or opportunity to form a union and exert their strength; ignorant as they were of arts and letters, they have seldom been able to frame and support a regular opposition. This, however, has been known by the great to be the temper of mankind; and they have accordingly labored, in all ages, to wrest from the populace, as they are contemptuously called, the knowledge of their rights and wrongs, and the power to assert the former or redress the latter. I say RIGHTS, for such they have, undoubtedly, antecedent to all earthly government- rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws--rights derived from the great Legislator of the universe. . . .

     Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees, for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attorneys, and trustees and the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men the country. It is even of more consequence to the rich themselves, and to their posterity. The only question is whether it is a public emolument: and if it is, the rich ought undoubtedly to contribute, in the same proportion as to all other public burdens--that is, in proportion to their wealth, which is secured by public expenses. But none of the means of information are more sacred, or have been cherished with more tenderness and care by the settlers of America, than the press. Care has been taken that the art of printing should be encouraged, and that it should be easy and cheap and safe for any person to communicate his thoughts to the public....

    Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. Let every order and degree among the people rouse their attention and animate their resolution. Let them all become attentive to the grounds and principles of government, ecclesiastical and civil. Let us study the law of nature; search into the spirit of the British Constitution; read the histories of ancient ages; contemplate the great examples of Greece and Rome; set before us the conduct of our own British ancestors, who have defended for us the inherent rights of mankind against foreign and domestic tyrants and usurpers, against arbitrary kings and cruel priests; in short, against the gates of earth and hell. Let us read and recollect and impress upon our souls the views and ends of our own more immediate forefathers in exchanging their native country for a dreary, inhospitable wilderness. Let us examine into the nature of that power, and the cruelty of that oppression, which drove them from their homes. Recollect their amazing fortitude, their bitter sufferings--the hunger, the nakedness, the cold, which they patiently endured--the severe labors of clearing their grounds, building their houses, raising their provisions, amidst dangers from wild beasts and savage men, before they had time or money or materials for commerce. Recollect the civil and religious principles and hopes and expectations which constantly supported and carried them through all hardships with patience and resignation. Let us recollect it was liberty, the hope of liberty for themselves and us and ours, which conquered all the discouragements, dangers, and trials. In such researches as these let us all in our several departments cheerfully engage--but especially the proper patrons and supporters of law, learning, and religion!

     Let the pulpit resound with the doctrines and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear the danger of thraldom to our consciences from ignorance, extreme poverty, and dependence; in short, from civil and political slavery. Let us see delineated before us the true map of man. Let us hear the dignity of his nature, and the  noble rank he holds among the works of God--that consenting to slavery is a sacrilegious breach of trust, as offensive in the sight of God as it is derogatory from our own honor or interest or happiness--and that God Almighty has promulgated from heaven liberty, peace, and goodwill to man!

    Let the bar proclaim "the laws, the rights, the generous plan of power" delivered down from remote antiquity--inform the world of the mighty struggles and numberless sacrifices made by our ancestors in defense of freedom. Let it be known that original rights, conditions of original contracts, [are] coequal with prerogative and coeval with government; that many of our rights are inherent and essential, agreed on as maxims and established as preliminaries, even before a parliament existed. Let them search for the foundations of British laws and government in the frame of human nature, in the constitution of the intellectual and moral world. There let us see that truth, liberty, justice, and benevolence are its everlasting basis; and if these could be removed, the superstructure is overthrown of course.

    Let the colleges join their harmony in the same delightful concert. Let every declamation turn upon the beauty of liberty and virtue, and the deformity, turpitude, and malignity of slavery and vice. Let the public disputations become researches into the grounds and nature and ends of government, and the means of preserving the good and demolishing the evil. Let the dialogues, and all the exercises, become the instruments of impressing on the tender mind, and of spreading and distributing far and wide, the ideas of right and the sensations of freedom.

    In a word, let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.