date

[clx. 308] 1822 July 6. Constitut
[clx. 308]

1822 July 6.

Constitut. Code Rationale

Factitious honor

Moreover what on this occasion has been shewn is - that in the nature of the case every token, emblem, evidence visible or otherwise perceptible efficient instrument or cause of this artificial instrument of sinister interest /factitious and mischievous product of bad government/ is a false certificate employed for the purpose of obtaining for the possessor a portion of respect which is not only not due, but which if paid can not but be in a preponderant degree mischievous. To issue any such instrument is in effect to issue a general order to the several members of the community to be accomplices to /with/ the member of the bad government in the /all the several/ acts of depredation and oppression which by this and the other incorporeal instruments of misrule they are of course in the habit of committing in virtue of their respective offices: acts whereby to pamper men by units they starve men and consign them to lingering death by thousands. To make one in the payment of the tribute so demanded is to aid and abet those enemies of the community in the war they never cease to be carrying on against it

If this be so, on each occasion, the fraud which by the voluntary bearing of any one of these titles the possessor is a principal in, finds in every one who voluntarily pays in the shape of respect the tribute thus called for, either an opponent an accomplice or a dupe: an opponent if he refuses payment an opponent, if he pays it, being at the same time conscious of the deceptiousness and mischievousness of the demand, an accomplice: if he pays it, for want of being really apprized of this its true nature, a dupe.

In a word the case of him whosoever concurrs in the paying of undue tribute in this shape bears a close analogy to the case of him who receives and puts off base and counterfeit money
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  • Title: [[clx. 309] 1822 July 6 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 309]

    1822 July 6

    Constitut. Code Rationale

    Factitious honor

    As to the ways and means of counteracting this instrument of corruption, they be distinguished, and the aggregate mass of them divided into such as are of a negative and quiescent nature, and such as are of a positive and active nature. Negative, the purposed omission or say forbearance to pay in any form the tribute of respect endeavoured to be exacted by the possessor and possession of the symbol or evidence of pretended title: positive by substituting to the tribute thus endeavoured to be exacted - the tribute that would be paid by the manifestation of the outward tokens of respect, tokens of the opposite sentiment: tokens in a word of disrespect

    As to these same tokens, the present is not a place for the enumeration or exemplification of them in any detail.

    Of one single one it may here be sufficient /not amiss/ to give the /an/ intimation. One of /Among/ the most impressive as well as the most /and at the same time an /a perfectly// unexceptionable way and means is to present to the senses - to present to the eyes and ears of every man by whom this unwarranted order for respect is presented of every individual by whom the annoyance is thus inflated /nuisance is committed/ the demonstration of the injustice /invalidity/ of his pretensions: and this may be in speech or writing, by words or by other signs in the grave stile or in the gay stile, in prose or verse, without music or with music accompanied or not accompanied with music.

    How annoying so ever these demonstrations may be to the delinquent, so long as corporal annoyance is not added to them, they will be even if they be all of them added together nothing more than means of self-defence against injuty - systematic injury and purposely /studiously/ elaborated injury
  • Title: [[clx. 278] 1822 July 12 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 278]

    1822 July 12

    Constitut Code Rationale

    6 Factitious honor excluded

    4. Evils produced

    7. Evil 7: evil by sanction given to imposture. The character in which this token operates is that of a certificate of merit on the part of the wearer: of useful and meritorious service rendered by him in some shape or other to the community at large: and combined with this certificate is a draught drawn upon the members of the community in their character of members of the Public Opinion Tribunal for value received: a draught payable in tokens of respect, value received in the shape of meritorious service

    The functionaries by whom this counterfeit /deceptious/ instrument is uttered are by the practice of uttering it and the habit of seeing it accepted, encouraged to act in the character of impostors. It operates in this way on their moral faculties as an instrument of demoralization

    8 Evil 8: evil by propagation of delusion. This evil is the counterpart of the last preceding one. In so far as the imposture /fraud/ passes upon them undiluted - in so far as they /men/ are imposed upon by it, and bestow respect where respect is undue and the payment of it mischievous - mischievous to themselves[?] mischievous, as hath been seen to every body it operates upon their intellectual faculties: it operates as an instrument of intellectual depravation.
  • Title: [[clx. 254] 1822 July 9 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 254]

    1822 July 9

    Constitut Code Rationale

    Securities

    Factitious honor

    ?. Expository matter

    2. It operates as a sort of certificate - as an article of documentary evidence: as a certificate of merit /good desert/, whatsoever may be the idea in the community in question associated with the word merit: as a certificate declaring on the part of the person by whom the title is conferred an opinion that the person on whom it is conferred by him is a possessor /in possession of/ that same article called merit.

    Of such certificate the effect is to cause respect in degree and quantity more or less considerable to be entertained by the members of the community in question to be entertained /manifested/ towards and in relation to him: respect, or at any rate the outward signs and tokens of that inward sentiment. This effect it produces, by ascribing dignity to him: dignity or worthiness: by causing it to be believed that in the opinion of him by whom the honor is conferred he on whom it is conferred is worthy of receiving at the hands of the members of the community in general those same outward tokens

    It gives intimation that in the opinion of that same functionary, the person towards whom /in whose favor/ it is his desire that these same tokens of respect should be manifested and paid - manifested as it were in payment, has been and is deserving of such respect. To deserve any thing good any instrument of felicity is to have a claim to it in the character of a reward on the score of service - on the score of service in some shape or other rendered by the individual in question to some other individual or individuals: of which service if it be real must have been /an effect must have been/ the contributing in fact or in probability to cause him to experience pleasure in some shape in which he would not have experienced otherwise or to be exempt from experiencing pain which he would have experienced otherwise