Combating for a Principle.

Selected writings of John King.

"Another outrageous imposition upon the people of a free country, and which has been borrowed from monarchical aristocracy, is the chartering, in addition to the commercial, monetary, and other incorporations referred to, of literary and scientific institutions; the effect of such chartered institutions is to create an insolent snobbishness among their members and graduates fully equal to that encountered among a certain character of persons who have suddenly and ill-definedly acquired wealth. It is by no means intended to convey the idea that university or college education should be disparaged or dispensed with; on the contrary, we commend it, and consider it highly necessary and useful in all departments of life, more especially because the higher the education of a person the greater should be the good conferred by him upon his fellow-man. But we do most decidedly object to a rule, a law, or a statutory invasion of the rights of mankind that, by favoring envy and malice, or by occasioning a species of hostile espionage, would scrutinize the when and the where a person had received his education, in order that he might be maltreated, misrepresented, and ostracized should he have dared as a free, independent being to educate himself or to obtain his education at some other institution than that enforced upon the people by an infamous, despotic law."—John King, in The Coming Freeman, pp. 67, 68.

COMBATING FOB A PRINCIPLE.— "A great deal has been said concerning 'irregulars' who are ignorant or who do not hold diplomas from any school of medicine. We wish it to be distinctly understood that we are by no means endeavoring to uphold ignorance nor to disparage erudition; we are combating for a principle—the same principle through which Homoeopaths and Eclectics have been enabled to attain their present high standing—the same principle for which our forefathers of the Revolution fought—mental independence and personal right—and which, whenever ignored or set aside by unconstitutional legislation, will enslave our people to a precedent that can serve as an entering wedge through means of which all constitutional and personal prerogatives may ultimately be destroyed."—KING, Address on Special Medical Legislation, Eclectic Medical Journal, 1884.

The Biographies of King, Howe, and Scudder, 1912, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M. D.