from a disposition habitually vicious; laws are necessary to regulate the conduct of men toward each other, and to secure to the members of a community the enjoyment of their rights. Without laws, there would be no security to person or property; the evil passions of men would prompt them to commit all manner of wrongs against each other, and render society, (if society can be said to exist without law,) a scene of violence and confusion.

CHAPTER II.

Of Rights and Liberty.-Natural, Civil and Political Rights and Liberty-Right of Opinion.

12. THE word right, when applied to action, signifies what is fit and proper to be done, as opposed to wrong. But as a substantive, in the sense in which it is here used, it means the just title or claim which a person has to any thing; and it signifies that the thing belongs to him who is said to have the right. Thus it is declared in the American Declaration of Independence: "that all men are endowed with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it."

13. The object of civil institutions is, or ought to be, the security of those personal rights, in the full and free enjoyment of which true liberty consists. The rights of mankind are denominated, first, natural rights; secondly, political rights; and thirdly, civil rights.

12. What is the definition of the word right, as applied to action! What as a substantive? In what sense is it here used? 13. What is the object of civil institutions? 14. What are natural rights?

14. Natural rights are said to consist in the rights of personal liberty, of personal security, and of private property. These laws originate in the laws of our nature; and they cannot be forfeited but by the commission of some crime against the good and wholesome laws of the community.

15. Political and civil rights are generally considered and treated as belonging to the same class of rights; although each is clearly a distinct class. Political rights are the rights and powers granted to the people by the constitution, or fundamental law of the state. The right and power of making laws, the power of appointing, electing and controlling the officers of a government, and the right of altering and amending the constitution itself, are rights conferred by the constitution, and are therefore properly denominated political rights.

16. Čivil rights are those that are guarantied to citizens by civil institutions, and are contained in the class of natural rights-the right of personal liberty, of personal security, and of private property, together with the numerous rights derived from these. They are called natural rights, as they have their foundation in the laws of social nature; but they are denominated civil rights, because, for their secure enjoyment, they depend on the social or civil compact. By civil compact is understood that agreement or contract, by the terms of which the members of a community are governed. The right to obtain legal redress for an injury done by another, or the right secured to an individual by the laws of the community to which he belongs, of enjoying the free use of his property, are therefore termed civil rights.

17. Liberty, applied to man, consists in the free exercise and enjoyment of his rights; and this liberty is either natural, civil, or political, according as reference is had to one or the other of these rights. Herein consists the difference between liberty and right: the latter signifying

15, 16. What is the distinction between political and civil rights? What is understood by civil compact? 17. What is liberty? The difference between liberty and right? 18. In what does natural lib

the just claim or title which a person has to any thing; the former, the exercise and enjoyment of his rights.

18. Natural liberty consists in a power and freedom of acting as one thinks fit, without any constraint or control, unless by the laws of his social nature. In other words, moral or natural liberty is a permission which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property, in such a manner as they shall judge most consonant with their own happiness; on condition that they act according to the laws of nature; that they do not in any way abuse it to the prejudice of other men; and that they observe towards others all the moral duties enjoined by these laws.

19. It is not essential to the enjoyment of natural liberty, that a man may do whatever his passions may urge him to attempt. If, therefore, moral obligation be consistent with moral or natural liberty, it would seem that man does not necessarily give up, as some suppose that he does, a portion of his natural liberty, when he enters into civil society. The physical power to injure himself or others, does not imply that the laws of his nature give him a right to do so. The law of nature is founded on the principles of justice; which require every man to regard the rights of others as well as his own.

20. Civil liberty consists in the secure exercise and enjoyment of all civil rights. It is that liberty which a man enjoys as a member of society, and is said to be no other than natural liberty just so far restrained as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage of the public. It can be enjoyed only under an upright and impartial administration of just, equal and expedient

laws.

21. Political liberty consists in the exercise and enjoyment of political rights, rights reserved to the people by the constitution, the fundamental laws of a state, in such manner, and under such regulations only, as are provided

erty consist? 19. What does natural liberty not license a man to do On what is the law of nature founded? 20. What is civil liberty? How only can it be enjoyed? 21. What is political lib

and authorized by these laws. The important end of political liberty, and for which alone it is valuable, is to secure the permanent enjoyment of civil liberty. It is the only security against political slavery.

22. Besides the rights above mentioned, is the right of opinion. The right of private opinion, or of private judgment, is a right that cannot be interfered with without a violation of the law of nature. The exercise and enjoyment of this right consist in the liberty of a man to act agreeably to his religious opinion; and in the liberty of political opinion, the liberty of every person to express and publish his opinions on all subjects relative to the government. Among the "unalienable rights" with which men are created, is religious liberty. This liberty has been denominated "the liberty of conscience," and "the rights of conscience." It is defined to be, "the liberty which a man has of discussing and maintaining his religious opinions, and of worshipping God in that way and manner, which he believes in his conscience to be most acceptable to his Maker, without being liable to any degradation, penalties or disqualifications, civil or political." The liberty of speech and of the press, and the liberty of conscience, are enjoyed in the United States to their full extent. But this liberty does not imply that a person may so act as to violate the rights of others, or to disturb the good order of society.

erty? For what is it valuable? 22. In what consists the right of opinion!

CHAPTER III

Of Laws-The Law of Nature-Law of RevelationMunicipal Law-Law of Nations.

23. LAW, in its most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we say, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, of mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and of nations. And it is a rule prescribed by some superior, and which the inferior is bound to obey. In a more confined sense, it denotes the rules of human action or conduct: that is, the precepts by which man, the noblest of all sublunary beings, a creature endowed with both reason and free will, is commanded to make use of these faculties in the general regulation of his behavior.

24. Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator; for he is entirely a dependent being. A being independent of any other, has no rule to observe but such as he prescribes to himself: but a state of dependence obliges the inferior to take the will of him on whom he depends as the rule of his conduct, in all those points in which his dependence consists.

25. As man is dependent on his Maker for every thing, he should in all points conform to his Maker's will. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature. For God, when he created man, and endued him with free will, laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, by which that free will was in some degree regulated and restrained, and gave him also the faculty of reason to discover the meaning of these laws. These laws are founded in those relations of justice that existed in the nature of things.

23. What is law, in a general sense? In a more confined sense? 24. To what laws is man subject? 25. What is meant by the law