authority which is as divine in its origin as is the authority of a parent over his child. Civil authority is of divine origin, and it is lodged in the people. It is held by the nation as a whole, and not by the people as individuals. Society is not a congress of sovereigns. The power of society does not come from the individual members, but it belongs to the nation as such. The nation receives it from God, as a parent receives from God his right to govern his children. If we suppose that civil society possesses no authority except what has been imparted to it by the individual members, it follows, as we have already seen, that government can not be extended over those who have not surrendered their share of sovereignty. In such a case, majorities would have no right to control minorities. The supposition that civil government rests upon individual sovereignty would thus virtually destroy all governmental authority. The Power of Society It may be thought that the theory that the authority is in the community-the people as a whole-would lead to the other extreme of a social despotism. But, although the sovereignty is in the people collectively, they have Limited. no right to exercise any authority which God has not bestowed upon them. The parent has no right to govern his child except for the child's good; neither has the nation any right to do any thing which is not for the good of the people. Each member of the community has inalienable rights, with which society has no right to interfere. It is not claimed that all rights come from the state; many do, but some do not. They belong to man as man. Humanly speaking, the sovereignty is in the nation-the people collectively. But this sovereignty is not absolute; it must be exercised in subordination to a higher sovereignty which recognizes the dignity and worth of the human being. A political community, independent of all others, framing its own constitution, and enacting its own laws without hinderance or question from any other community-in short, a body What is a Sov or Nation? politic, with no political superior, is a sovereign state or nation.1 France and England are sovereign nations; so is the United States. The sovereignty is in the state, as distinct from the government of the state. The people col- ereign State lectively constitute the state; the body of men who for the time being are invested by the state with civil authority constitute the government. The political society exists as an historical fact; thus existing, it frames for itself a constitution and adopts a government. The nation must exist as a separate political community before it can give itself a constitution. The constitution does not constitute the nation, but only the government of the nation. A constitution is an organic law, and presupposes a body politic possessing the authority to enact such a law. The constitution thus made by a nation already existing, prescribes the mode in which the nation determines that its govermental affairs shall be managed. It is a kind of letter of instructions to those who are to act as its ministers in carrying on the government. It is the organic law to which all other laws must be conformed. The constitution is made by the nation for the guidance of the government. The government can not change it, but the nation can. tion between the Nation and the Government. This distinction between the state or nation, on the one hand, and the government on the other, is of great importance. The sovereignty is in the nation. As sovereign, the The Distincnation may constitute the government according to its own judgment, and give it such form as it pleases. But the sovereignty is in the nation as such, and not in the individual men composing it. the nation is expressed in the constitution, which is the supreme law until the nation chooses to alter it; and this alteration must be made in the mode which the nation has itself prescribed in The will of The word state is used by writers on government to signify a separate political community; it is synonymous with nation. In the United States it is also applied to a member of the American Union. In this volume, when used in the former sense, it will be written state; when in the latter, State. the same organic law. A large majority of the people may disapprove of a clause in the constitution, but their disapprobation passes for nothing until the obnoxious clause is constitutionally removed from the constitution. The same is true of the laws of a country. They are supposed to be valid until repealed. The constitution is made by the people, and the laws by the government; but both are in force until changed or repealed by the power that enacted them. The people as a whole do not make the laws; the government does not make the constitution. Some writers distinguish between the constitution of the nation and that of the government. Jameson calls the first a constitution considered as an objective fact. It is the 'make-up of the commonwealth as a political Two-fold. organism; that special adjustment of instrumentalities, powers, and functions, by which its form and operation are determined." The second is a constitution considered as an instrument of evidence.1 Brownson says, "The constitution is two-fold; the constitution of the state or nation, and the constitution of the government. The constitution of the government is, or is held to be, the work of the nation itself; the constitution of the state, or of the people of the state, is, in its origin at least, providential, given by God himself, operating through historical events or natural causes. The one originates in law, the other in historical fact." 2 The Constitution 66 The constitution of the nation is unwritten. The constitution of the government may be written or unwritten. The constitution of the nation is its character-what it is, at any epoch. The constitution of the government is what the nation chooses to make it. As the nation changes, its constitution changes accordingly; and the nation should change its governmental constitution from time to time, to make it correspond with the real constitution. The American nation was in existence a number of years before it formed a written governmental con 1 Jameson's Constitutional Convention, page 66. 2 Brownson's American Republic, page 138. stitution. The present constitution, which went into operation in 1789, has received slight modifications at different times, and will continue to be modified in future years, as the character of the nation itself is changed. We shall see, when the mode of amending the Constitution comes to be considered, that most ample provision has been made against hasty alterations in that instrument. Indeed, there is more reason to apprehend that needed changes will be delayed too long than that those which are unnecessary will be introduced. There are various forms of government, differing from each other more or less widely. In a Monarchy, the ruler is a single person. An Aristocracy is a form of government Forms of Government. in which the authority is held by a few. In a Democracy, the power is exercised by the people themselves. But most existing governments combine two or more of these forms. A Monarchy. In a Monarchy, the whole authority is not necessarily in a single person. Most of the governments of Europe are called monarchies; but in some of them the king has less power than the President of the United States. An absolute monarchy is a despotism. The monarch governs according to his own will and caprice, and not according to established laws. Such a government is clearly illegitimate. It is a government of force. In a limited monarchy, the king, prince, or emperor, or whatever he may be called, though nominally the sovereign, wields a power more or less restricted. Great Britain and all the provinces subject to it are called Her Majesty's Dominions. The government is carried on in the sovereign's name. The army and navy are called Her Majesty's troops and ships. But at the same time her real power is small. The laws are enacted by Parliament, and they are administered by the ministers, who are called Her Majesty's government. Parliament is composed of two houses: the House of Lords, which is chiefly hereditary, and the House of Commons, which is elective. A. C.-2. A Republic is properly a commonwealth. The domain belongs to the nation rather than to the king or the nobles. It is a A Republic. government in which the authority is exercised by the representatives of the people. It differs from a Democracy in this, that in the latter the power is exercised by the people themselves, while in the former the people elect representatives to act for them. A pure democracy can exist only in a small territory, where all the people can meet and enact laws. A republic may be democratic or aristocratic. If suffrage is universal, if the rulers are elected by the whole people, the government is a democratic republic. In proportion as suffrage is restricted and the number of voters diminished, the government becomes less democratic and more aristocratic. A Democracy. Most existing governments are, to some extent, republican, although at the same time monarchical. Louis Napoleon, late Mixed emperor of the French, held his office by election. Governments. The people of France made him emperor by their votes. The monarchs of England rule by hereditary right; the members of the House of Lords hold their seats by virtue of their birth; but the members of the House of Commons are elected. The government is thus at the same time monarchical, aristocratic, and republican; but in its republican part it is more aristocratic than democratic, as a large part of the people do not possess the right of suffrage. Macaulay calls the Roman emperors republican magistrates named by the Senate. of our Government. Our own government is peculiar. John Quincy Adams speaks of it as "a complicated machine. It is an anomaly in Peculiarity the history of the world. It is that which distinguishes us from all other nations, ancient and modern." Dr. Brownson says, "The American Constitution has no prototype in any prior constitution. The American form of government can be classed throughout with none of the forms of government described by Aristotle, or even by later authorities. Aristotle knew only four forms of |