Book Review - The Last Free Man in America (2004)

Pass the joint and hand me the ammunition

The Last Free Man in America
Gatewood Galbraith
Outskirts Press, 2004
287 pages

The autobiography of a real American hero, or at least a real American character.  No, Hero, with a capital H.  This is the real McCoy, a man who has dedicated "his life, his fortune, and his sacred (and unsacred) honor" to reclaim American freedom.

Gatewood Galbraith grew up in Kentucky and has spent the greater part of his life fighting for personal freedom in that country, especially for the right to plant and grow and use cannabis/hemp without being harassed by agents of the state.  He would claim every American, certainly every Kentuckian, has the absolute right to use marijuana in one’s home.

He has a unique political perspective; I guess I’d call him a libertarian populist, who sees the country having been subverted by the synthetics—the petrochemical and pharmaceutical interests.  These are the guys responsible since the 30s and the New Deal for the national security state (NSS), and for foreign relations that diminish the value of human freedom overseas... for the sake of synthetic power-elite profits from slave labor.  (This is the so-called Free Trade/Fair Trade argument—where Galbraith becomes more populist/democratic than libertarian/academic.)

The two acts that started the ball of serious statism rolling were the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 and the Machine Gun Tax Act of 1937.  This protectionism for the synthetics explains the suppression of cannabis for natural medicinal remedies, as well as preventing better approaches to making paper, cloth, oil, energy, and so on.  The destructive tax vs. automatic weapons was intended destroy, to deprive citizens of their self-defense against mob crimes, the mob being connected to the politicians.

Note  -  Galbraith is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, and has long sought to work an alliance among the militia and pro-natural agriculture movements.  Indeed, the cover of his book shows him holding what looks like an automatic rifle (I don't know my model designations, but I'm sure many readers will).  He offers several insights into the importance of being armed and willing to fight for freedom.

Though Gatewood Galbraith is idiosyncratic, his credentials as a freedom fighter are first rate.  He has run for agricultural commissioner, governor, Congress, and attorney general through the last twenty years in Kentucky.  Often his vote totals have been in the 10-15% range, and he has attracted quite a following there, as well as a fair share of powerful enemies.

Willie Nelson has helped him in several campaigns, and both the men are featured in the movie popularized by Woody Harrelson, Hempsters: Plant the Seed.  He’s an attorney, and has struggled financially all along.  The Last Free Man takes a look at his background and at the foreground.  An illustrative quote from Galbraith is: "My greatest accomplishment is learning to believe in myself and trust in the natural cycle of things."

I did learn something about cannabis from this book: cannabis is close to being a common cure-all, effective for everything from asthma to emphysema.  Consider this quote from a team of medical experts:

"Active medicinal ingredients in marijuana, especially tetrahydrocannabinol, are among the safest and most widely applicable therapeutic substances known to man. Marijuana relieves suffering in patients afflicted with AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, anorexia associated with chemo and radiation-therapy for cancer, the "wasting" effect of tuberculosis, AIDS and cancer, migraines and spasticity both by relieving the symptoms of their affliction and by allowing them to by-pass certain other medicines which have demonstrable debilitating side-effects. The evidence indicates that marijuana is highly therapeutic in the treatment of itching, dystonia, chronic pain, as an antitussive, antidepressant, tranquilizer, topical anesthetic and uterus stimulator. It seems that no other single medicine has been discovered that has such a wide range of applications and is as completely safe to use as tetrahydrocannabinol."—Science and Truth Hearings

During his gubernatorial campaign, he and Willie Nelson drove Galbraith’s diesel car from Lexington to Louisville in a caravan of 200 cars, filled with a gallon of pure hempseed oil.

He mentions all the bright lights in the movement—Jack Herer, Marc Emery, Woody, Willie, etc., etc.—and a few of the many horror stories of the drug warriors abuse of innocent citizens.  The government’s policy of drug prohibition, particularly with marijuana, is Pure Evil, an evil that shall be remedied in the not-too-distant future.  The forces of change to a more benevolent and productive policy are irresistible, and irreversible.

See our hemp links site, which should be up soon.  But just surfing from the above Hempsters site will find you enormous resources in the global fight for liberating this lifegiving and healing product.

An anomaly in Galbraith’s development and maturity is why there seems to be no explicit connection with the Libertarian Party.  I attended a Libertarian event in Michigan during which Galbraith spoke and touched on all the points of his book, including his awareness of the treachery of the current administration with 911 and blackbox voting.  But none of his campaigns was with the LP of Kentucky, which has been active during that period.

Perhaps you can send a note to Galbraith, and ask him.  [We don't publish machine readable email addresses, you may find his mail address at the bottom of the Gatewood Galbraith website.  —Ed.]  I’ll tell you one thing, if he were chair of the party, the media would pay attention.  Worthwhile read from one of the most successful independent political candidates in the most recent 60 years.  I think I’ll ask him to change the title to The First Free Man in America.