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from seeing and acknowledging that from this exploded principle, his government were enabled to put down all opposition, and to stand erect amidst that political tempest which prostrated some of the most powerful governments of the old world, and shook others from their base. He did not indeed, live to witness the event, but from the energy of this same principle, his nation rose superior to every danger, maintained their honor and independence against a world in arms, finally triumphed gloriously in the contest, and were hailed the liberators of Europe.

I was also desirous of exhibiting the source, whence we have derived the principles of our government, the popular branch of the English constitution; principles which that nation had found the means of inserting into the foundation of their ancient edifice, and, removing some of the decaying, unsightly, and cumbrous parts, have, on this foundation, in connexion with what remained of the old, raised a magnificent structure, uniting in a good degree, the symmetry, convenience, and beauty of modern architecture, with the venerable grandeur of the ancient, while we upon the same principles, on a foundation more broad, uniform, and solid, have raised an edifice, which if not equally venerable for its antiquity, equally gorgeous and magnificent, yet as we pride ourselves, uniting more symmetry, convenience, and beauty, and less exposed to the shock of political tempests. On the whole, it belongs to both nations, and surely not least to the people of these states to indulge a noble pride, that these principles are making advances in the old world, and in the new, have broken the chains of despotism riveted for ages, have diffused, and are diffusing the blessings of freedom and free institutions throughout one quarter of the globe, the whole continent of America; and to cherish the generous hope that they are destined one day to meliorate the condition of the I whole human race.

CHAPTER II.

Of Sovereignty.

By sovereignty is commonly understood supremacy, supreme power, unlimited and uncontrolled. We find, however, that it is used with considerable latitude, in its various applications. When applied to states and nations, in relation to each other, it means nothing more than independence. A sovereign state, in a political sense, is a state or nation in the free and uncontrolled possession of self government; the right of making war and of entering into treaties of amity, alliance, and commerce with other nations, as it shall judge most to promote its own interest. In this application of the term there is no idea of supremacy, but simply that of national independence. such is the meaning of the term when applied to nations as it respects their external relations. It has no reference to their natural powers, or physical force. These may be unequal in

the extreme, and yet each remain equally sovereign, equally independent. But when applied to the internal government of a state, it is made to signify a power somewhere vested, competent to regulate, control, and direct the will of the whole and of every subordinate member of the community. To this end, it is supposed to be absolute, unlimited, and incapable of being put under any control.

Various have been the opinions concerning this internal right of sovereignty, and its attributes, and where it can, or ought to be vested. It was long maintained almost universally, throughout the old world, that sovereignty was conferred on kings, and independent princes, by the immediate act of God;

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or as it was sometimes expressed,-God transcribes in kings the right of governing, which he held by virtue of creation. It was holden, that the sovereignty does not vest in the monarch by the election of the people, by succession, conquest, or any kind of occupation of the government, and that election, succession, conquest, or occupation, cannot be admitted as secondary causes. They are to be considered as occasions only, on which God by his immediate act confers the sovereignty on the prince; that on a vacancy of the throne, it returned to the original source, to be again conferred on the immediate successor. If the succession was broken or contested, it waited the event to be again conferred on the successful candidate. But it finally came to be considered the orthodox opinion, that the sovereignty once conferred on the reigning prince was thenceforth hereditary, and the right indefeasible, and thus, on the death of the reigning prince, it passed by a sort of metempsychosis, and vested eo instante in his lawful heir. Still it was held that republican governments whether in form democratic or aristocratic, were incapable of this divine gift, and were not entitled to the appellation of sovereignty, or majesty.

Grotius and Puffendorf were the first writers of any note on the continent of Europe, who called in question this source of the divine right of sovereignty, and derived it from the civil compact. Puffendorf speaking of the civil compact, which he here calls a covenant, says,-"so likewise the same covenant affords a full and easy title, by which the aforesaid sovereignty appears established, not by violence, but in a lawful manner, by the voluntary consent and subjection of the respective members. This then is the nearest and immediate cause, from which sovereignty, as a moral quality, doth result."* Yet, such is the force of association and early habits, he still adheres to the divine right. At the close of the same section he says,"Yet, to secure to the supreme command an especial efficacy and sacred respect, there is need of another additional principle, besides the submission of the subjects; and therefore

* Puffendorf, B. 7. Sec. 2.

he who affirms sovereignty to result immediately from compact, doth not in the least detract from the sacred character of civil government, or maintain that princes bear rule by human right, and not by divine." Such divine right he undertakes to prove in the next section. The substance of his argument is, that the establishment of civil government is necessary for the peace and safety of men; that the laws of nature dictate such establishments;-that in pursuance of these laws, which could not otherwise among great multitudes be carried into effect, civil governments have been formed, that God who imposed the laws of nature on the human race, thereby commanded the establishment of civil societies, so far as they serve as instruments and means of improving and enforcing those laws. Grotius, who wrote before Puffendorf, had said, "that men, not influenced by the express command of God, but of their own accord, having experienced the weakness of separate families against the assaults of violence, united in civil societies, the effect of which was civil power, styled on this account by St. Peter the ordinance of man.' ""* Puffendorf, remarking on this passage, says,-" Grotius' opinion is not so profane but that it may be borne with, if assisted by a dexterous interpretation; but that other opinion of Grotius, that the civil authority is therefore termed divine, because God approved of what man wholesomely instituted, we can by no means admit as though God approved of civil government, as it were, ex post facto, or after it had been actually settled." Grotius was a citizen of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, enjoying a republican government, and was ready to consider all governments in their formation as human institutions;—still he maintained the opinion, that the divine right of sovereignty and the sacred character of government were necessary to give it efficiency. Puffendorf thought Grotius' opinions of a subsequent divine approbation only erroneous and profane. They differed from each other, and both from former advocates of divine right, in the mode of derivation only. Both Grotius and Puffendorf, according to the metaphysics of the schools, considered sovereignty as an

* S. 1. Ch. 4. Sec. 7.n. 3. + Puff. Ibid.

entity, not a physical, but a moral entity, capable of supporting attributes, and of subsisting in any government; in a republic as well as a monarchy. But whatever the form of government, sovereignty was to be a unity. They allowed that in a republic, it might be committed to several organs according to the form of the government, which did not make a division of the powers; it still continued one and indivisible.* Such was the force allowed to abstract terms, and abstract notions formed in the mind by aggregation, that while the doctrine of abstract entities, the doctrine of the Realists continued, it was at least difficult, if attempted, to consider the notion of sovereignty as a complex idea, capable of being analyzed into separate and distinct powers, as the legislative power, the power of making laws, the judiciary, that of interpreting and applying the laws, and the executive, or power of executing the laws. It was not sufficiently considered that these powers had been confounded, by having been engrossed by a single organ, and that although they are all equally necessary and contribute equally to the ends of government, yet they are in their nature distinct, and requiro different modes and different talents in the administration. We may add with propriety, that, although the doctrine of the divine right of sovereigns has long since been rejected, and its absurdities so exposed that none, even of the princes of modern Europe would venture to rest their authority on that ground; and although the doctrine of abstract entities and their unities has been exploded and become obsolete, yet many of its terms remain in use, and without being properly defined, lead not unfrequently to erroneous conclusions.

The most eminent English writers, who have been perhaps inadvertently influenced by the notion of the unity of the sovereignty or supreme power, have, in that nation, vested it in their legislature or parliament, concerning which, judge Blackstone says, that "Legislature is the greatest act of superiority that can be exercised by one being over another; wherefore it is requisite to the very essence of law, that it be made by the supreme power, sovereignty and legislature are

*Vide Puff. 490. B. 7. Ch. 4. Sec. 1.

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