THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.
THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.
THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.
THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.
Notwithstanding all this, which has been said in opposition to the doctrine of individual sovereignty as the true principle of government, it contains the germ of an ultimate truth, which will be realized whenthe total of individuals forming the world’s community shall have become so advanced from the present low conditions to those of wisdom and love, as to make every individual involuntarily recognize the rights of every other individual. In other words, individual sovereignty will be the principle of government when that time shall come wherein there will be no necessity for government, because the people shall have grown into the condition of a universal brotherhood. It is this innate sense of individual right which is present in the consciousness of every individual who has grown to know he is an individual, which makes this constant conflict between ultimation and approximation. It is the expression, politically, of the same principle which, religiously expressed, makes it possible for the consciousness of the individual to contain an undefinable knowledge of a Great First Cause, and at the same time to feel that he is an individual agent. In other words, it is the old doctrine of free agency reproduced in the political world, which, if it is but considered a single moment with an unprejudiced mind, it must be seen that there is no such thing as free agency; for every individual is dependent upon something, over which he has no control, every instant of his whole life, which something even produces the capacity which gives him the power to think he is free.
It will be seen, then, that the great general principles which govern the entire universe, are recognized in the proposition that all people are born free and equal, and entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which are inalienable rights; but it fails to be comprehended that the inalienable rights of freedom are limited by the other condition of equality, which makes every individual free within the distinct sphere of his individuality, but not free within the sphere of other individuals. He has the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, when it is not exercised at the expense of the inalienable rights of others in the same direction. These are the governing laws which the worlds obey, and which control the minutest particles of matter. And these are the true “Principles of Government.”
It will be also seen that the forms by which the principles of our government are administered are imperfect, and consequently that, however much we may reverence the Constitution of the United States, it requires remodeling to enable the true principles of government to find expression through it. The inconsistencies, also, of the rights of States, as represented by the common government, must also be removed. The State is either the source of governmental power or it must proceed from all the States, as combined in government. If the former, we areno more to be respected as a Union than the numerous Italian and German States were before the consolidation. The republic, under such construction, amounts to nothing more or less than a union for offensive and defensive purposes,at the optionof the several States, which is as purely a governmental force as could well be imagined. The inconsistency of this construction of the Constitution was fully shown in No. III. of the “Limits and Sphere of Government,” and need not be repeated here; the subject has been pursued here, that the utter folly, inconsistency and impossibility of the recognition of individual rights, where such rights conflict with the community as a whole, might be the more palpably apparent. Having considered the source of the imperfections which exist in the form of our government, what should legitimately follow for consideration is, the remedy. In the first place, the theory of States rights must be abandoned, and each State must become a member of the Union by organizing under a common form, to be prescribed by them all, or by the present required constitutional majority of them all, to make an amendment to the Constitution valid. The same rule should be applied as that which has come to be a recognized necessity in States regarding incorporating companies. All the States should be required to organize under a general State law, which should be clearly and concisely set forth in the Constitution, which should recognize the general government as the determining power, and not that it exists by the sufferance of the States, but that the States exist as organic bodies, because they have complied with the requirements of the Constitution, which was necessary to constitute them States. In conformity with such acquired power, States should prescribe the means by which cities can become incorporated. In this way, unity of purpose and harmony of interest can be secured from the individual up to the total of individuals forming the nation.
Such a government would be a strong government indeed, but one in which its composing members of States and the composing members of individuals would have the utmost extent of freedom that the interests of the whole would admit. If this is not the end to be gained by government, then government is a simple farce, and unworthy of being allowed to exist anywhere. From the earliest historic ages the world has constantly been extending to individuals through its forms of government, more and wider freedom and greater privileges and immunities. This process will continue to spread, as the general people become more and better fitted to be the recipients and the appreciators of such extensions to them.
The individual has more rights and privileges to-day in the world than at any other previous time, but all individuals have not yet become such perfect laws to themselves that no formulated law is required to restrain them from the infraction of others’ present rights, privileges and immunities. Until such time come, a strong central government is required.
A strong central government does not necessarily mean anything approaching a monarchy. But it does mean a republic which will have the support of all its citizens as a central support, instead of each State comprising the Union reserving to itself the right to differ from the central power. In such a government, the majority of the people would, at any time, have the right to elect new officers, as provided for, so that the strong central power would not be in the individuals administering the government, but in the organic law which constitutes the several parts of the country a common government, which, while being the strongest possible governmental form, it would, at the same time guarantee the greatest possible freedom, equality and justice to its people which would be compatible with the common interests and the common good.
Lastly, such a central power of government is the only one to which peoples not already within the government could be admitted without endangering its existence. A new State desires to become associated with the several States forming the present Union. Immediately she is admitted, she has, under the present doctrine and practice, the right to withdraw. She has been admitted by and with the consent of the required majority of the States previously constituting the Union; therefore, logically, she has not the right to withdraw without the same consent It required this consent added to her free and self-expressed desire to become a State; it should also require the same consent before she should be allowed to withdraw from the Union.
Under a general rule for the admission of new States, and of allowing addition to the present limits of the Union, all that would be required would be for the people of a certain limit to adopt the requirements of the Constitution, and present themselves to Congress for admission. Aggregation, according to this rule, could always proceed without ever endangering the safety of the general government, because a country once having become a part of the Union would be under the mighty constraint of the whole Union to properly and peacefully perform the functions of a State in the Union. This condition can be well illustrated, by supposing that there was a confederation of all theEuropean powers to preserve peace among themselves under certain defined agreements. If a single power violated any of those agreements, or attempted to make war upon its own account against another nation, a party to the agreement, all the other contracting powers would be in honor bound to make the interest of the nation against which proceedings were being had contrary to the common agreement their own. War, under such conditions, would be practically impossible. So would disunion, under the proposed system of confederation.
The country which shall first adopt such a system will be the centre of the future Universal Government of the world; and it is with this view in mind that these suggestions are offered to the people of the United States of America, which country is, by the common order of the universe, appointed to be that centre, to the end that they shall see the necessity of immediate action to perfect the organic laws of the country.