Eugene V. Debs · the federal court, Cleveland · September 18, 1918
text: Wikisource · published before 1931, in the public domain
colour carries the act's function; a dashed underline marks a predicted misfire; hover or focus any span for its filing
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth.Avowal — Constitute the self in the saying. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: reflexivethe past tense reports a decision taken elsewhere, and the self it constitutes is the one standing for sentence; the levelling runs downward, and no person on earth is left standing beneath the speakerI said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.Avowal — Constitute the self in the saying. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: reflexivemisfire: reflexive misfire — "I am of it" constitutes a self by refusing to stand above the lowest; heard outward at a sentencing, the same clause reads as a defendant locating himself inside the class the court is convened to punish, and the third limb, "while there is a soul in prison, I am not free," is about to be made literal by the bench
I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: outwardthe one report allocution is built to receive — a mind altered by the proceeding — is entered here as absent, and entered as a finding rather than as defianceI look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions…Frame-set — Install the construal that fixes which moves are legal. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: metamisfire: frame collision — under this construal the conviction is a persecution and the statute a despotism, and the party asked to hold it is the court whose power to sentence comes from that statute; the statement's last line leaves that power intact
Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in a fundamental change—but if possible by peaceable and orderly means…Report — Relay another's utterance. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: metathe speaker relays his own testimony back into the record he is standing in, and relays the qualification with it: "if possible" states a condition and leaves the alternative unnamed
Standing here this morning, I recall my boyhood.Articulation — Render a felt sense into words; the saying changes it. function: expressive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: reflexivethe participle fixes the place — "standing here" is the bar of a criminal court — and dates the recollection to itAt fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: outwardtwo ages and two jobs, the only checkable facts the statement offers about anyoneI remember all the hardships and privations of that earlier day, and from that time until now my heart has been with the working class.Avowal — Constitute the self in the saying. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: reflexivethe boyhood is the warrant and the membership is the claim, asserted as unbroken since fourteen; this is the credential every later paragraph spendsI could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison…Counter-signal — Decline an expected status marker to imply that one’s standing needs no proof. function: expressive · orientation: belonging · motive: mixed · scope: wide · target: outwardthe honour the state offers is declined and the punishment it offers is claimed instead, in the perfect tense, at the hour when the choosing passes to the bench
I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and the factories; of the men in the mines and on the railroads.Articulation — Render a felt sense into words; the saying changes it. function: expressive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: reflexivethe room is repopulated by naming: mills, mines, factories, railroads, none of them represented at this table and all of them now in the transcriptI am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed of their childhood and in their tender years are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the monster machines while they themselves are being starved and stunted, body and soul.Articulation — Render a felt sense into words; the saying changes it. function: expressive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: reflexivethe main clause stays expressive, "I am thinking," while the relative clauses do the indicting; every verb in them is passive and the only agent named is Mammon, which is a defendant no court can summonI see them dwarfed and diseased and their little lives broken and blasted because in this high noon of Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the flesh and blood of childhood.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outward"I see" offers the speaker as a witness, and the clause after "because" is the charge his testimony supportsIn very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless sway in the affairs of men.Frame-set — Install the construal that fixes which moves are legal. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: mixed · scope: wide · target: metamisfire: frame collision — the sentence names a sovereign and assigns every tribunal beneath it a function; arriving inside a paragraph of testimony about children it can also be taken as a figure of speech, and which it is decides whether the bench is an arbiter or an organ (low confidence)
In this country—the most favored beneath the bending skies—we have vast areas of the richest and most fertile soil, material resources in inexhaustible abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on earth, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their labor to that machinery to produce in abundance for every man, woman, and child—and if there are still vast numbers of our people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing struggle all the way from youth to old age, until at last death comes to their rescue and lulls these hapless victims to dreamless sleep,Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwardan inventory of abundance, then a condition built out of it; the whole span is the premise, and no verdict has been entered yetit is not the fault of the Almighty: it cannot be charged to nature, but it is due entirely to the outgrown social system in which we live that ought to be abolished not only in the interest of the toiling masses but in the higher interest of all humanity…Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwardtwo defendants are acquitted by name, the Almighty and nature, and a third is convicted; the sentence passed on it, "ought to be abolished," arrives in the passive, with nobody named to carry it out
I believe, Your Honor, in common with all Socialists, that this nation ought to own and control its own industries.Avowal — Constitute the self in the saying. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: reflexivea creed entered by a man being sentenced for what he has said, and the interpolation "in common with all Socialists" enters a body into the record alongside himI believe, as all Socialists do, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned—that industry, the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all…Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwarddoctrine in the indicative of a programme, with the second "as all Socialists do" placing the speaker as the reporter of a common position rather than its author — which is also the reading that makes the belief inextinguishable by a sentence on him
I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.Avowal — Constitute the self in the saying. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: reflexivethe present progressive puts the opposition in the room: what he is doing is what he is being sentenced for, and the clause after "while" supplies his reason for continuing to do itThis order of things cannot always endure.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwarda claim about the future in the indicative of a natural law, with no mechanism named and no date attachedI have registered my protest against it.Declaration — Bring a state into being by saying so. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: outwardmisfire: misinvocation — registering requires a register, and the only one open this morning is the transcript of a proceeding that will file these words as allocution before sentence; the speech performs its own repair in the next breath, "I recognize the feebleness of my effort"I recognize the feebleness of my effort, but, fortunately, I am not alone.Mismatch-repair — Name the scope or orientation gap itself. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: metathe gap between the act and its force is named by the speaker and then closed by widening the scope; one man's protest fails on its own terms, and the same protest entered on behalf of a movement does notThere are multiplied thousands of others who, like myself, have come to realize that before we may truly enjoy the blessings of civilized life, we must reorganize society upon a mutual and cooperative basis; and to this end we have organized a great economic and political movement that spreads over the face of all the earth.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwardthe "we must" is reported as the content of what others have realized rather than issued from this bar; the statement holds its imperatives at one remove until its final paragraph
There are today upwards of sixty millions of Socialists, loyal, devoted adherents to this cause, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color, or sex.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwarda count entered into a criminal proceeding, where it names the one quantity the sentence about to be imposed cannot reduceThey are all making common cause. They are spreading with tireless energy the propaganda of the new social order. They are waiting, watching, and working hopefully through all the hours of the day and the night.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwardthree present progressives in a row: the movement is described as in motion at the moment its spokesman is being stoppedThey are still in a minority. But they have learned how to be patient and to bide their time.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: outwardthe concession the rest of the paragraph has to answer, and the answer offered is patience — which is also what the sentence about to be imposed will enforce on the speakerThe feel—they know, indeed—that the time is coming, in spite of all opposition, all persecution, when this emancipating gospel will spread among all the peoples, and when this minority will become the triumphant majority and, sweeping into power, inaugurate the greatest social and economic change in history.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: belonging · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwardmisfire: orientation mismatch — the warrant is upgraded inside the dashes, from what the adherents feel to what they know, and what is known is a future; the sentence delivers the standing of a body of believers where its grammar promises a prediction
In that day we shall have the universal commonwealth—the harmonious cooperation of every nation with every other nation on earth…Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outward"in that day" carries over the prophetic calendar of the paragraph above, and "we shall have" reports the end state as settled business
Your Honor, I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity.Frame-break — Collapse the operative frame. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: metaallocution exists so that the defendant may ask; declining its one move cancels the frame, and the cancellation takes effect because the plea is his alone to withhold — the speech's only uncontested performative until its last sentenceI realize that finally the right must prevail.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwardthe modal does the work of a law rather than a command, which is what makes the refusal in the sentence before it bearable: nothing has been given up, because nothing the court can grant was ever the operative forceI never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice.Articulation — Render a felt sense into words; the saying changes it. function: expressive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: reflexivethe clarity is dated to this morning, which credits the prosecution with producing it; the trial is filed as an instrument of the defendant's own sight rather than as a judgment on him
I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity.Articulation — Render a felt sense into words; the saying changes it. function: expressive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: reflexivethe verb is perceptual and its object is a century off; what the saying renders is the seeingThe people are awakening.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: belonging · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwardmisfire: orientation mismatch — a present-tense report on a mass condition, offered with no evidence from a courtroom, and contradicted three paragraphs above by the speaker's own concession: "They are still in a minority"In due time they will and must come to their own.Assertion — State that something is the case. function: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwardtwo modals on one verb, prediction and obligation at once, with nobody named to discharge either
When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the southern cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand.Frame-set — Install the construal that fixes which moves are legal. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: mixed · scope: wide · target: metathe figure fixes the reading of the present: darkness is the hour before relief, and the sign is legible to a lookout with no bell to confirm it — the epistemic position the statement has claimed for itself since "I can see"Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.Order — Direct another to act. function: directive · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: wide · target: outwardmisfire: orientation mismatch — the statement's only imperative, and its addressee is "the people everywhere," none of whom are in the room; the directive reaches anyone at all by being carried out of a court transcript
I am now prepared to receive your sentence.Declaration — Bring a state into being by saying so. function: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: cooperative · scope: narrow · target: outwardthe statement closes by handing the proceeding back, and what it returns to the bench is the authority every preceding paragraph has denied; this declaration is felicitous where the protest was not, because ending one's own allocution is a thing a defendant can do
The divergences
"While there is a criminal element I am of it" — the movement files an Avowal: a self constituted by refusing to stand above the lowest, and the refusal is its entire content. The prosecution files an outward Assertion, a defendant placing himself inside the class the court is convened to punish, entered minutes before sentence. They part on target. A court has no procedure for taking up a reflexive act, so the judgment operates on the outward reading — and the outward reading is the one the sentence then confirms.
"I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity" — the bench files an Assertion about what will not be requested, which alters nothing pending before it; the readers the statement was printed for file a Frame-break, after which the morning is a trial of the order that convened the court rather than a plea answered by a judgment. They part on function. The refusal is delivered into a room that cannot act on it and takes effect in one that can, which is how the whole statement is built.
"In very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless sway in the affairs of men" — the gallery files an Assertion about the age, a figure of speech inside a paragraph about children; a hearer who takes it at its word files a Frame-set in which every tribunal in the country is an organ of the power named. They part on target: a claim about the world, or a move on the frame under which the next act of the proceeding will be performed. The filing decides whether the judge is an arbiter or an instrument, and nothing in the text settles it beyond the verb "rules."
"This minority will become the triumphant majority and, sweeping into power, inaugurate the greatest social and economic change in history" — adherents file an Assertion keyed to reality, about a future they are working toward; a prosecutor under a wartime statute files a Threat, a conditional commitment to future harm keyed to standing, spoken by a man who has counted sixty millions behind him one paragraph earlier. They part on orientation. The text supports both: "in spite of all opposition, all persecution" supplies an adversary, and the verb handed to the majority is "sweeping."
"I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison" — the movement files a Counter-signal: the honour the state offers is declined and its punishment claimed instead, which settles standing without further argument. The court files an Assertion in the wrong tense, a preference stated in the perfect at the hour when the choosing passes to the bench. They part on orientation: standing, or the world. The pair works only if the prison is chosen, and the proceeding exists to establish that it is imposed.
"Let the people everywhere take heart of hope" — read narrow, within the four walls, the imperative directs nobody present and closes a peroration; read wide, with the transcript as its delivery, it is the only instruction the statement issues and the only sentence that reaches its addressee. They part on scope. This is the line where the audience changes without the grammar changing, and it answers the question the occasion raises: a statement addressed to a court, composed for everyone the court will send it to.
"I have registered my protest against it" — the speaker files a Declaration: the protest is entered by being spoken, and the court reporter is the register. The court files an Assertion about protests already made elsewhere, which are precisely the acts he is being sentenced for. They part on function — performed here, or reported from before. The record took it both ways: the transcript became the protest, and the earlier protest was the offence.