Sketches of the Principles of Government

Preface

. The subject of government has employed the pens of the first philosophers of every age, from the time of Plato and Aristotle to the present day. To them the world are much indebted, especially to some of the moderns. None of them, however, as far as recollection serves, have attempted, or at least, have succeeded in an investigation of first principles; in analyzing the social nature of man, and deducing from the relations thence resulting, the principles that ought to be pursued it, the formation of civil institutions; and yet it is believed, this is the only certain ground of investigation, the only mode in which any general, consistent, and practical principles in the science of government can be established. The greater number of those who have written on this subject have employed themselves in illustrating and recom mending the principles and form of some government, for which they had conceived a predilection ; while others in their theories have consulted the imagination rather than the understanding.

It will, therefore, be readily perceived that the theories and principles of neither class of these writers can be of general, much less of universal application ; that they cannot be applied, at least, indiscriminately, to governments of a different construction, and embracing different, and in many respects opposite principles. Such are the civil and political institutions of these United States; they differ in principles and construction very essentially from all that have preceded them. The Author convinced of that difference of principles and the excellence of our institutions owing chiefly to that difference, published as early as the year 1793, a small work entitled, " Sketches of the Principles of Govern ment," with a view of briefly illustrating the principles on which they are founded.

That little work which was well received at the time, has long been out of print. The Author had entertained a design, as no treatise had appeared fully embracing the subject, of publishing a revised edition of that work ; but on a review, he found it too limited in its plan, as well as deficient in arrange ment. He, therefore, resolved to new-cast the whole, to enlarge the plan, to give it a more regular and scientific arrangement, and as far as he was capable, to make it an elementary treatise on that kind of government which has been adopted in these United States. In the execution of this task, although the work consists principally of new and additional matter, the Au thor has in several instances, admitted portions of his former work with such corrections as were suggested by a long course of observations and experi ence.

PREFACE.

. He has enjoyed many advantages favorable to the accomplishment of his design, — he has been an attentive observer of passing events, and not unfrequently an actor in the political scenes that have occurred in a period of more than half a century commencing with the controversy between the states (then colonies) and the mother country, — which eventuated in their in dependence, and, finally, in the establishment of the present government on the true principles of freedom — a period agitated and occupied with revolu tions and revolutionary movements, which have extended with various effects to all the civilized nations of Europe and the whole of the American continent, and which have produced a more thorough investigation, and discussion of the social and individual rights of man and the nature and principles of free governments than is to be found in any other age, indeed, than all preceding ages within the reach of history.

With what success the work has been executed must be left to the decision of the public. Such a work adapt ed to the civil and political institutions of the country has been hitherto, a desideratum, which it was the Author's ambition to supply. If, however, he has failed in this, it will be a sufficient consolation, should what he has at tempted, excite some writer of more leisure and of a higher order of talents to accomplish the task, although, now at the advanced age of fourscore he can hardly expect personally to enjoy that consolation. The Author has throughout the whole endeavored at the investigation of natural principles, and to follow truth wherever it led ; — he has several times been induced to differ from the opinions of some writers of the first talents and reputation. Although he has examined these opinions with the freedom of philosophical discussion, it has been his constant aim to treat the writers with that decent respect which they merit from every lover of science.

As to the manner and style of the work, if it should be thought that they savor of former times, the apology is, that the author himself, more properly belongs to an age that is now past. Tinmouth, Vermont, July 10, 1833. CONTENTS.

BOOK II. Of man, as formed for the social state

CHAPTER I.

Of the first rude state. — Whether this is a state of virtue and happiness in preference to a state of improvement, 9 CHAPTER n. Of the appetite or propensity for society ; the appetite which leads to the propagation of the species — ambition — sympathy, . . 16

Chapter IV

Of the construction of the constitution, with observations and some of the principal powers, general and incidental, 253 CHAPTER v. Nature of the Union established by the confederation, and of the Union established by the constitution of the United States — the different parties to their several establishments and their different powers, . 263

Appendix

. Number!. — Articles of confederation, 303 Number 2. — Mr. Madison to Mr. Ingersoll, 309 Number 3.— Mr. Madison to Mr. Cabell, 312 Number 4.— Mr. Madison to Mr. Cabell, 319 Number 5.— Mr. Madison to Mr. E. Everett, .... 323 ERRATA. The Publisher regrets that the errors of the press have been so numerous as they appear to be by the following list. He trusts, however, that it will be a sufficient excuse to the candid reader, that the greater part of the work was printed from manuscript at such a distance from the author, as to prevent an inspection of the proof-sheets by him. To the same cause, as well as to imperfections in the manuscript, some slight errors are owing, all of which may not be noted below. The work having been sent to the publish er at different times, and in separate portions, one parcel was accidentally mislaid, and was not observed to be wanting, until it had been passed by in the order of printing.

It was afterwards inserted in its place, aster the 144fse page, the letter (a) being annexed to the number of the pages. No inconvenience can result from this slight irregularity ; but it has the effect of making the contents of the work appear less than they are in fact, by 44 pages. Page Line from for read Page. Line from for read 2 12 bottom, resulting, result, 103 13 bottom before speech dele 'the,' I8& 19 mean, means, 114 14 top, nation, nations, 22 3 do aster progress, inseTt in the knowledge 114 8 bottom, sacred, second, 41 19 top, after furnish insert 'us,' 133 1 do second * remaining, 53 17 do nature, motive, 143 6 top, indeed, induced, 59 18 do getting, keeping, 176a 5 do served, succeed, 65 7 do aster given insert 'up,' 182a 12 bottom, aster and, insert 'if,' do 8 do good, goods, 174 5 top, see, seek, 66 3 do relating, relate, 184 16 top, to, by, . 74 16 do alternately, ultimately, 189 II bottom, agreements, arguments, 81 9 do before custom insert 'a,' 193 2 top, decreeing, directing, 82 18 bottom, Menort, Mentor, 193 17 top, representation, perception, 83 12 top part, poet, 207 II bottom, sentence, sanction, 88 18 bottom, divisions, decisions, 217 15 on, read an, institutions, institution, 100 8 top, after rated dele Ho,' 250 1G bottom, on, or. do 19 bottom, learners, learning, 243 topi, before representatives insert 'Ey^ry 102 12 top, priest, priests, law passed by the senate and house of , i.JUim' ■

Chapter I. The Subject Proposed

A theory has been adopted by some European philosophers,* and strenuously advocated by their followers, that the first rude state of society, which, among civilized nations, is usually denominated the savage state, is the only natural state of man ; that in this state alone he is capable of attaining the acme of perfection in virtue and happiness. They have supposed, that, what are generally called social improvements, serve only to deprave, and either inevitably generate a wicked disposition in man, or at least, invigorate an original propensity to vice, which might otherwise forever lie dormant, in what they so emphatically style the state of nature. — They have even gone farther, and maintained, that civil government, so far from proving a remedy for these evils, necessarily becomes the corrupt cause and fruitful source of all the miseries to be found in society.

Others have maintained, that true virtue and pure benevolence in man, would, in every stage of society, supersede the necessity of municipal laws and civil subordination. With a shade of difference from the former, they hold, that wickedness alone has imposed the necessity of civil government. They appear to imagine, that civil polity is not to be derived from principles founded in the social nature of man ; but that it is a *Rousseau and others. — The Abbe Raynal inclines to the same opinion. — This chapter was written in the year 1793. system of rules contrived to meet his wicked disposition, and to restrain the violence of individuals by the violence of laws. According to them, civil government was not so much designed, by the Author of our nature, to lead men to happiness in society, as to prevent the miseries, which they are ever ready to inflict on each other. — In short, that there is to man, a necessity for civil government, but not an adaptation of bis nature to that state.

Some political writers of great eminence* have admitted, that man was originally designed for civil government, and is under a certain necessity of nature to adopt it. At the same time, they have maintained that, on entering into civil society, he, of necessity, gives up a portion of his natural liberty, of his natural rights. By these expressions "natural liberty" and " natural rights" is to be understood, that liberty, and those rights, to which man is entitled as constituted by the Author of his being. This clearly implies that man is but partially fitted for civil society. Compelled, however, to adopt that state, from a necessity which is admitted to arise from a law of his nature, he is supposed to sacrifice a part of his natural rights to secure the remainder, and even to acquire others, to which he was not by the laws of his nature originally entitled.

It is proposed in the following work to inquire, whether man is, by the constitution and laws of his nature, fitted for society; whether his happiness does not require social improvements, and laws, which resulting from his whole nature, lead to the adoption of civil institutions ; or whether he is compelled to adopt that state by a single, and that a vicious principle in his nature, in opposition to others. Whether, considered as a moral being, the laws of his nature have indulged to him any liberty which he may not enjoy under civil institutions ; and whether government and laws be not, to any secure enjoyment, both of natural and civil rights, in fact, necessary to all subordinate social beings, with whatever virtues they may be endued. The great end in these inquiries will be, to find the leading principles of government in the laws of social nature, and to trace them into exercise in the establishment of civil *Locke, Becearia, Blackstone, aud many others. institutions.

In the United States of America, political opinions, though considered as merely theoretical, cannot be wholly inconsequential. In these states, government is professedly founded in the rights of man. — It derives all its efficacy in the prevention of evil, all its energy in the production of happiness, from the sentiments of the people. The opinions, generally entertained, of government, of the necessity of laws, of the end to be attained by them, and the proper mode of attaining that end, will have an influence on the sentiments of the people and the reasonings of the legislator. They will, in a good measure, form the features of the government, and give a tone to all its acts in every department of the administration.

Chapter II

Of the sense in which the term, " principles of government," is used in the following work. From Montesquieu the term " principle" or " principles," when applied to government, has been used in a more appropriate sense, than in other sciences. In other sciences it is always used to signify something fundamental, some leading rule, law; or maxim. Thus we speak of the principles, on which any thing is constructed, as, a watch. The term principles, here, comprehends not only, the laws of mechanics, but those rules by which the relative proportions of the several parts are determined, to direct the motions to a certain end. These are properly called the principles of construction. There are also rules by which the moving force is applied and made to operate on the machine, with a view to the end proposed.

These are called the principles of operation. The term is frequently used to signify some passive quality, capacity or susceptibility ; that condition of a subject, by which it is fitted to exhibit, in consequence of the operations of certain agents upon it, certain effects agreeable to certain laws. Thus we speak of the principle of fluidity, the inflammable principle, the principle of malleability ; and thus we say of man, that the principles of society and government are implanted in his nature, by which we mean that he is fitted for such state, or at least that his nature requires it. In the science of government, there are the principles of construction, by which the government is constituted and organized ; the principles of operation, by which its activity and efficiency are produced.

There are also the passive principles arising out of the susceptibilities of man, through which he becomes subject to all the variety of passions and emotions, that are excited by means of impressions made on his mind, by a multiplicity of agents and objects both corporeal and mental. To these the operative principles are adapted to produce the end intended — obedience to the laws. These principles, however, are, or ought to be, directed by ulterior principles, to be sought in the social nature of man, and by those laws established by the Author of nature, in his formation, designed to promote the general happiness. The operative and passive principles in any government are determined by the constructive principles employed, or the nature of the constitution. They will therefore be different according to the different constitution or nature of the government.

Those which are here denominated the operative and passive principles, Montesquieu, has, by way of eminence called the principles of government ; and this is altogether proper to his design, which was to treat of the spirit of the laws peculiar to the different constitutions of governments in being ; not of the principles on which governments ought to be formed. But in the view we have proposed to take of the subject, the principles of government are not capable of being thus simplified, or reduced to any single principle. Far from it, they are often very complex and subject to a great variety of modifications, from the admission of different principles in the construction. Each government, however, has its predominant and characteristic principles. The same may be said of other principles beside those of Montesquieu.

He has in one place defined the principle of a government to be the human passions, which set it in motion.* This, taken in the author's sense, does not militate against what has just been observed of the passive principles arising out of a susceptibility of passions and emotions. The passions, it may be said, when excited, alone, give activity and vigor to the operative principles. He has introduced three different principles, which he tells us, are peculiar to the three principal forms of government, the despotic, monarchical, and republican. Fear, he tells us, is the principle of a despotic government. This, in his sense of the term principle, is undoubtedly just. The instruments of despotism are a military force at the beck of the sovereign, which, by the terror of punishment, or rather of vengeance, secures obedience to his mandates.

Inveterate habits of superstition often come in aid of the military force, and clothe the messenger of the prince, with the power of armies. Fear is that passion of human nature, to which the measures of this government are principally addressed, and without which the despot could procure obedience only by the constant and present application of force in each particular case. Honor he assigns as the principle of a monarchy. This I will venture to say, is, taken in his sense, very deficient. That passion of emulation, that desire of excellence, which is natural to man, and which, by cultivation, is capable of an infinity of directions, good and evil, is with the higher orders in a monarchy, modified into what is called the principle of honor ; but its direct effect in securing obedience to the sovereign, is confined principally to those orders.

The multitude, the great majority of the nation are under a complicated despotism. The nobles, in conjunction with the military order, are the instruments employed to awe the people to obedience. Religion, transformed into a gloomy superstition, has been often employed to the same end. * Book III, Chapter 1. In the same sense he makes virtue the principle of a republic. We are liable to be misled by the use of this term, in a sense different from that, in which it is commonly received. As the principle of republican government he has therefore defined it to be "a love of the laws and of our country."* It is necessary here to observe, that the term " republic" in its usual acceptation comprehends several kinds of government very different in their nature and principles ; they may, however, be reduced to two principal kinds, — an aristocracy, of which oligarchy is a degenerate species ; and a democracy, of which a government by representatives, periodically elected by the people, is an improved form.

A form of government unknown to the ancients, and which has not been distinguished by an appropriate name.f An aristocracy differs from a monarchy as an aggregate from a sole corporation. The people are under the same slavery, both civil and political, as under a monarchy ; and are indeed farther removed from all prospect of honors. A sole monarch is under a necessity, in administering the government, to communicate honors and authority to some of his subjects ; but an aristocracy always confines the distribution of honors and authority to its own members and their families. The principle of virtue, the love of the laws and of the country is, in strictness, no more applicable to this kind of government than to a monarchy. Both the monarch and the members of the aristocracy love their country ; they love their people, in a certain sense ; because they are the source of their political consequence, and the machines of their power ; but as for a love of the laws, they are, in both governments, made for the people, not for the rulers.

In a democracy, where the powers of government are retained in the body of the people, and in the representative form, where the powers are vested in delegates periodically elected by the people, and accountable to them, the laws are made for all, as well for the rulers as the people, and are or ought to be, an expression of the will of the society, being an aggregate of the individual wills. Now if the will of the aggregate, in all cases, coincide with each individual will, the observance of the law * Book IV. Chapter 5. } Note. must be as necessary as the power of willing ; but this can, perhaps in no instance be the case. The will of the whole, that is the law, is the result of mutual concessions or a compromise of the individual wills, as determined by the majority. Hence the necessity of our author's principle of virtue, which he has appropriated to republican government, and which I have ventured to call a predominant sentiment of attachment to the community, its institutions and laws, which alone can secure for the laws a general acquiescence,' and the ready obedience of the individual members.

Under this kind of government, no force can be applied in the execution of the laws but what depends on this principle. It is certainly no more entitled to the appropriate appellation of virtue, than other social passions and sentiments common to man ; but it has this pre-eminence over the other principles, mentioned above, that it is, when rightly informed, perfectly in harmony with all the other moral and social virtues, and is best promoted by them. In the following work the term " principle" and " principles of government," will sometimes, according to the nature of the subject, be used in the appropriate sense of Montesquieu, but more generally, in the same sense, in which it is used in other sciences, as explained above.

Book II. Of Man As Formed For The Social State. Chapter I

Of the first rude state. Whether this is a state of virtue and happiness in preference to a state of improvement. That the savage state is a state of nature to man cannot with truth, be denied. There is not, at this day, a people on earth, who may not trace their origin to a race of savages ; some indeed more and some less remote. The Jews, as the writings of Moses and their subsequent historians abundantly prove, are far from being an exception. The question is not, whether a rude unpolished state be ever a natural state to man ; but whether, in the original constitution of his nature, he is so formed for happiness in this state, as to exclude any benefit to be derived from progressive improvement. We are at a loss, at what period of the progress of society, to fix the precise state of nature intended.

Shall we go back to the rude state of the inhabitants of New Holland, who have learned to draw no part of their subsistence from the earth by cultivation, or the inhabitants of Terra-del-Fuego, whose sole dependence, for food, is said to be in the shell fish found in the sand at the ebb of the tide, neither of whom have any notions of honesty or the rights of property, beyond the circles of their little tribes ? Shall we make a little farther advance and place it among the savages of North America, when first discovered by Europeans, some of whom continue in the same rude state to this day ? They are simple, they are honest, as far as the circle of their several tribes. They obtain their food from the river, or the forest, furnished by the bounty of nature, and the little deficiencies are supplied by a scanty cultivation of the earth.

The skins of the chase furnish them with coarse, but comfortable clothes, or are exchanged for the products of European looms. They are contented with their present situation, or rather resigned to it as their inevitable lot. All this was true, and still is true of all the American natives, whose manners have not been affected by intercourse with European settlers, who have occupied a large portion of their country ; and yet it gives us hardly a glimpse of their character. The savages of America, like other men, have their predominant passions. They esteem war and hunting almost the only pursuits worthy of a man. Address in these constitutes their highest point of honor, while every other labor of life is imposed on the women, who are no better than slaves. Hence they derive an excessive ferocity of manners : their resentment is keen, and revenge their most darling gratification.

This arises from their state of society, in which every one is left to judge in his own cause, and to avenge his own wrongs. As they never forget a favor, so they never forgive an injury. Among the different tribes, the injuries of an individual are resented as national; the possession of a hunting ground is to them the possession of an empire, and these are the sources of frequent wars waged with the most savage ferocity. The butchering and scalping of old men, women, and children, the torturing and burning of prisoners in cold blood with the most shocking circumstances of cruelty are among their pastimes. These are not secret acts of violence — are by none considered as wrong ; they are public transactions, performed under what is to ftiem, the law of nations. Nor have they been free from ambition of conquest, — from that lust of power, which when acquired, has generally proved the scourge of the human race.

The Mexicans, when first visited by the Spaniards, were in possession of an extensive empire acquired by the conquest of neighboring nations and tribes. In later times, the Iroquois, or five nations, formed a powerful confederacy of conquerors, and became the terror even of distant tribes. — Nor were these singular incidents. We find every where among them, traditions and even monuments of powerful nations, who made extensive conquests, and were again conquered or exterminated by some more powerful nation, or by a coalition of neighboring tribes. Notwithstanding this trait of character, which has been exhibited by some of the North American tribes, at different and distant periods, it is generally true of all, that as they are not anxious about the future, for the same reason they are almost wholly improvident.

When notengaged in their favorite pursuits of war or hunting, they are too indolent to think of making an adequate provision against the inclemency of the seasons, or of any future want. As they have fewer vices, so they have fewer virtues than more civilized nations, and both are more prominent, more distinctly marked. This arises from the paucity of the objects with which they are conversant. With them numerous passions, correcting and restraining each other, are not, as in a state of civilization, equally excited, by a multiplicity of objects. When any object rouses their attention, the whole force of the mind, the whole vigor of the soul is collected and exerted on one point. Hospitality is always a virtue, and is peculiarly so to a savage people, and the finest trait in their character.

When we contemplate this virtue, among such a people, it strikes the mind with all the advantage of vivid sentiment, singularity of impression and contrast of manners. Every recollection is accompanied with an enthusiastic admiration, that makes us regret the loss of those manners, which are, alone, capable of giving lustre to this sublime virtue. Will it be thought strange to assert, that this virtue derives its origin and takes its principal lustre, from the barbarous manners of the age ? and yet such is the fact. It does not, however, consist with the rudest state of society and of manners. Some advance in civilization, some progress in the arts of life, is necessary to give a relish for hospitality, and to supply the means of indulging it. Among a people in the hunter state it makes but little figure : depending on the fortune of the chase, or the gleanings of the forest, they find but a scanty and precarious subsistence.

With neither the foresight, nor the means of making a secure provision for the future, they are frequently in want of necessary sustenance. Among such a people, the pressing demands of nature, leave little of their scanty stores for the uses of hospitality. They have little curiosity, and no conception of any knowledge, which can be of use beyond that of forming the bow or some instrument of the chase. With such a people always exposed, and not unfrequently reduced to a famishing condition, what can compensate for an additional tax on their precarious and scanty means of subsistence ? The North American natives have never been equally noted, for the practice of this virtue, with the ancient Germans, or the more ancient inhabitants of Greece. They draw but a small share of their subsistence from the earth ; all the care of their tillage, consisting in the cultivation of maize, beans, and a few edible roots, is left to the women.

The labor of these, spared from their attendance on the men in hunting, and other drudgeries of a domestic nature, without the assistance of useful animals, and with such rude implements as they can either form or procure, can yield but a scanty supply for one part of the year ; the other is, for the most part, as scantily supplied by the fortune of the chase. They appear to have little relish for any new arts of life, unless they have some relation to their principal occupations of war and hunting ; and very little curiosity for any information to be derived from an intercourse with strangers. Instances are not however, wanting, in which they have discovered all that fidelity to their guests, all that warmth of attachment, which gives such a charm to the patriarchal times of the old world.

Although the instances are less frequent, they bear the same genuine character of heroic integrity. The shepherd state supplies a more ready and abundant supply of food and domestic conveniences. Then, more at ease, conversation begins to acquire a charm; more arts become necessary. The useful and the convenient engage the attention. New objects afford gratification to an awakened curiosity; still they are divided into small tribes ; their domestic manners are sincere, but rough ; to strangers, they are fierce, cruel and faithless. So universal has always been the state of war among such a people, that, in almost every language, the same word originally signified both foreigner and enemy. Disputed boundaries are often the occasion of wars : they are often waged to avenge a private quarrel ; and to surprise and plunder the neighboring tribes of their herds is the principal object of their hostile enterprises.