THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.

NO. I.

Government being an organization of power, and power always presupposing action, motion, it becomes a matter of the gravest importance to a people who are formulating a government that they should lay hold of the highest sources from which action can spring—that is to say, as all action is the result of some prime motor power, to have action which will proceed in perfect channels, producing harmonious motion, it is primarily essential that the motor, or moving or controlling force, shall be of that character which in expression will move majestically yet sympathetically against all opposition, always having in view the fact that the presence of low forms of any development is detrimental to all higher forms with which they come in contact, either directly or through exerted influence.

It has previously been found that the deductions which are to be drawn from a complete analysis of all the tendencies which governments have exhibited during the historic age of the world, conform to the propositions of the highest form of religious conviction, which is, that God being the common Father of humanity, that humanity must be a common brotherhood. Consistent with this the tendencies of government are found to have ever been to one common form. If these propositions grow out of the fact that the principle of unity is at all times operating to bring about a perfect expression of itself, through humanity, the legitimate deduction is, that the time will come when its ends will be accomplished, and that that time will be when humanity has risen into a complete recognition and acceptance of the fact that they are all children of one common parent.

Principles never change. They constitute the basis of creation, the forms of which are constantly changing under the influence of the 110application of the same power. The same force which caused the matter of which this planet is composed to first assume its orbital position and motion, now causes the various parts of it to exhibit the almost infinite variety of manifestation which is now presented. The same power that was exhibited in the construction of the original rocks, is also exhibited in the construction of the sweetest, most fragile flower. The evidence of evolution—progress—being, that from the rocks the flower has been produced. Ascending to the animal kingdom, motion, the result of power applied to matter, was found manifesting itself in the simplest of organic forms. There, as in the previous periods, it continued its constructive workings, until the perfect animal form, man, was evolved.

In the strictest examination which can be made into the power which controls, there can be nothing detected which would seem to, even indicate that there is anything outside of, and superior to the contained life, to which to attribute the direction the form takes through which life is manifested. If this be so, the principles which underlie the physical universe are but names for this inherent power, which cannot be attributed to any power less than the Source of all power. Manifested principles of action, then, which relate to matter, may justly be considered as the perfect operation of divine law through the physical universe.

It becomes resolved to this: that the power which is the compelling principle of all action is at all times the same, but that it manifests different results, as the channels through which it operates are different Thus, the motion of the atmosphere over the surface of the ocean exhibits power by the waves it produces; while the same power proceeding to land bends the forests and the fields, verdure before it. The tiller of the soil involuntarily recognizes this fact, when he destroys all growths which exhaust the constructive power of the air and soil except the particular one he desires to further or perfect. He knows that to concentrate all the power upon this one, he must concentrate its expression in the form he wishes developed. If this process could be understood, it should be the ordinary rule in every department of the universe. All the power there is, should be concentrated into action through the most advanced, and consequently the most perfect forms—perfect forms always being those which are adapted to the highest uses.

Wherever this rule is generally applied by nature or man, the lower existing forms disappear, and in due time the higher fill the places 111they occupied. Thus, species of plants and animals are constantly disappearing from the economy of the universe, while new and higher are as constantly appearing. And it is to be specially observed, that where the new exists the old dies out. This law is also distinctly visible in the development of the different races and types of the human, all of which a universal tendency prophesies will ultimately be merged into one grand, all-comprehending race. The tendency to this condition was distinctly traced in the Tendencies of Government, and was held to be the basis for the conclusion, that, in its continuance, the condition named would be naturally and inevitably reached. It may be stated then, as a general rule, that the most certain method there can be to destroy the bad—the old—and to inaugurate the reign of the good—the new—is to attend to introducing the good in the most rapid and best manner, which will naturally live upon and sap the life from the old, which must necessarily pass away.

If a new race of humans is introduced among a race which is not possessed of that capacity which makes it possible for it to develop or assimilate to the new, it will most certainly die out. Such races are fixed types of the human, and their characteristics can never be merged among the general characteristics of the future common race of humanity. The North American Indians are good examples of this fixedness, and they will soon cease to exist upon the face of the earth; while the Negro is an excellent representative of the capacity of evolution and also of amalgamation. It is not to be lost sight of, that when the Anglo-Saxon and the Negro amalgamate, the direction the amalgamation takes is always from the black to the white, and never from the white to the black, which is positive evidence that the Negro will ultimately be entirely lost in the white races.

A mighty lesson is also to be gathered from observing the constructive process of the several kingdoms of the earth, each one of which is built upon the preceding and leads to the succeeding. The vegetable kingdom could not exist until the elements comprising the mineral had gone through their various processes of integration and destruction, by which vegetable life was made possible. The vegetable, taking up the process inherited from the mineral, began moving through the same cycle of advancement by which the mineral had made it possible, and it gradually merged into the animal; and so gradually that it can scarcely be decided whether some forms of life belong to the latter or to the former. The evolution of the animal, having ultimated in the production of the human, it is not to be inferred that there is 112nothing beyond the animal kingdom which is the fruit thereof, as the vegetable was of the mineral and the animal was of the vegetable.

Again, the vegetable world feeds from the animal—the animal feeds from the vegetable, which is the only source which furnishes living protoplasmic food, upon which the animal can alone exist. Humanity takes this protoplasmic dish either fresh from the vegetable or second-hand from the animal. It will thus be seen that everything which nature accomplishes serves specific purposes, and that when the supply is exhausted the demand ceases. If this principle is followed to its legitimate end, it will close in the life of the whole animal kingdom being merged into humanity, which will then feed entirely from the fresh protoplasmic dishes of the highly developed fruit of the vegetable kingdom.

These arguments are not pursued as a necessary part of the Principles of Government, but that the working of universal principles may be caught sight of and made use of in the endeavor which will be made to decide how humanity can best assist the operations of these principles as applied in its own government. Nature being ever consistent in all her movements in the several kingdoms, how shall “Mind” assist her in accordance with her own principles of operation, in establishing perfect channels for her powers to produce the perfect fruit of the animal kingdom?

In the Tendencies of Government it was found that all movements in government which have been made during the historic age of the world have been in the direction of universal control, the persistence of which course leads to the conclusion that it will be attained when government shall be based in those principles which, proceeding from a common centre, shall be sufficiently potent to control the entire circumference of humanity. The limits and sphere for such a government to exercise its power in, was found to properly extend to all matters in which the common interests of the public are concerned as against assumed individual interests, which would in reality be to the “greatest good of the greatest number.”

An exemplification of the natural working of a government founded and administered according to strictest governmental justice may be seen in the growth and in the maintenance of the life of the tree, which may be made to represent the tree of humanity. The tree is a complete community within itself; all its branches and twigs, even to the extremest distance, are dependent upon the same fountain for its controlling life currents that the parts nearer the base are. No single 113branch can maintain its life independent of the rest. Each separate one must draw its proportion of supplies from the same source and return the stream to its fountain when its demands upon it are completed. This power, starting from a common fountain, is delegated to the various branches for still further and more general distribution; but no branch can set up a distributing process for itself in opposition to the general process. If the branches had the power to set up processes of their own, the inevitable result would be inharmonies in the common order, which would work ultimate injury to all parts connected with the main body. Thus it is with a country. It must possess a common governmental fountain, and all divisions of it must be directly dependent upon the common fountain. No division can be permitted to set up special channels of administration for itself. Each must work in harmony with all others, and all be equally dependent and dutiful to the common head. In such and in only such can harmony prevail and life be continuous.

Having found, then, what the destiny of government must be, and having determined its proper limits and sphere for operation, it becomes still more essential and necessary that the true mainsprings of governmental power shall be recognized, for without this, government would still linger in its age of temporary resorts to get over the constantly arising contingencies of the times. When this recognition takes place, legislation will have accomplished its work, and the vast talent therein expended can be turned into the channels of governmental art. It is to attract the mind to the operation of general principles in nature that we have thus far dealt with the material universe. In advancing into the subtler department of mind, it cannot be for a moment supposed that an entirely new arrangement of principles lies at its base, any more so than that there should have been new rules of nature to introduce the animal or the vegetable. Instead of this having been, it is perfectly demonstrated that the same laws govern in each and all; that is to say, that the same principles of government control them all. Bearing this in mind, we now proceed to the consideration of the operation of principles wherein the human mind comes to assist nature in its strife for perfection, itself joining in the race.

114

THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.

NO. II.

It was remarked previously that Nature is consistent in all her operations throughout her entire domain; to which may now be added that the nearer the human approximates his rules and methods to those exhibited in the departments of Nature below him, the nearer will he approach to true rules and methods. Arbitrary and dogmatic formulas do not belong to Nature in her free manifestations, nor can they be administered in any of her combinations. In all the uses men may make of the elements of matter, he must comply with the laws of their existence: he cannot frame a law, and then command that Nature shall obey it.

Certain quantities of certain elements will combine and form a compound; but no other proportions of the same elements will combine to form the same compound, and in many cases they will not combine at all, unless certain fixed quantities are adhered to. Again, an effort may be made to unite two or more bodies, and they will be found to be incompatibles; that is, incapable of being united, because each has a stronger self-affinity than for any property existing in either of the other bodies with which they are brought in contact; but to these two or more bodies another principle may be added, which will produce the effect of uniting the whole. It is this principle in nature by which its elements combine and form all the various and diversified manifestations that are visible everywhere. These forms are none of them absolutely independent: they may, by their inherent power, attract other forms to themselves, or be by others attracted; the more complex and distinctly individuated ones being dependent upon those from which they spring for their existence; thus, as was before stated, the animal world is absolutely dependent upon the vegetable world for the protoplasm it must make use of to replace that expended by the animal economy. No animal can take the elements protoplasm is composed of and manufacture it; that process is alone the office of the vegetable 115world. And thus it is that a complete and infinite system of dependence exists from the lowest form of organic life to the highest; each is necessary to every other, while every one fills a special individual position of its own, and this is because they are all bound together by the same controlling powers or principles of action.

It is readily seen that the principles referred to are the same that are expressed by a common humanity, a universal brotherhood: one is a brotherhood of the elements; the other is a brotherhood of the ultimates of elements, of which mind is a product. Each kingdom has its beginning and culmination, and by the observation of their evolution we must draw the deductions as to what really governs that age of the world, and the special kingdom we find ourselves living in. The beginning of the mineral kingdom was when simple elements began to unite to form compounds; which was when the cooling process had so far progressed as to allow of combination; this process of the uniting and dispersing of elements culminated in the production of the simplest vegetable life, and thus ushered in the vegetable kingdom. In this, again the same process of uniting and dispersing was gone through with that had characterized the mineral. It began as it did, and culminated as it did by producing the next higher, or the animal kingdom, the simplest form of which is a single unit of nucleated protoplasm. Upon this single unit the animal kingdom began to be built. The same process of integration and disintegration continued through countless ages and until a form was produced, which is the ultimate of form in the animal kingdom. This ultimate, man, is the perfection of form that protoplasm can produce, and hence is the grand ultimate of the process of elemental combination first referred to. No other or higher form is possible to be arranged from the elements that the earth is composed of. Therefore, all future advancement to perfection must be in the perfecting process in man, and therefore it is logical to conclude that the same law that governed the beginning, the evolution and the ultimation of each of the kingdoms that produced man, will also govern the beginning, the evolution and the ultimation of the different stages in the perfecting process in him; and not only in the perfecting process as a whole, but in each division of the perfecting process; and this brings us to that part of the process illustrated by government, and to the principles of government which are under consideration.

It will be observed that there is a perfect analogy in the process of evolution that is observed below man, and in that which comes of man. First, there was the elementary unit, which corresponds to what 116was the governmental unit—the family government. Next, and second, there was the vegetable division, which corresponds to the second order of government—the consolidation of families into tribes. Third, there was the animal division of the process, which corresponds to the amalgamation of tribes into nations. Fourth, there was man, the ultimate of the whole process, containing in him the elementary principles represented by all the preceding forms—in none of which were they all represented as they are represented in him—and he corresponds to the ultimate of the process of governmental evolution, the complete consolidation of nations into one grand nation, as man is the complete consolidation of all animal forms in one grand animal form. His form is the animal form, containing all animal forms. A universal government would be a national form, containing the form of all nations gathered into one grand form. Here it is that the analogy is complete, and Nature is consistent in all her parts and processes, at all times and in all forms observing the simple general principles which so unerringly lead her.

There is, however, one important addition to the processes in which man takes part, over those where principles apply only in the so-called material control. Below man there is nature only. After man there is art added to nature; and it is this power to administer to Nature’s processes, to assist in them, and to remove and replace obstacles to activity in higher channels, that distinguishes man from all previous formations, and which virtually makes him an assistant in the after and higher evolutions of mind, which have, until very recently, been generally considered not of material origin, but which science now demonstrates are purely physical results—are combinations in consciousness of consecutive manifestations of matter. Here we have the ultimate production of the ultimate of the animal kingdom, the mental kingdom, or the kingdom of ideas.

Science also demonstrates that ideas evolve after the same formula which all preceding processes observed, and that all new discoveries of ideas are not discoveries of existing facts, but that they are new truths evolved from preceding forms of truth; or, in other words, that they are higher forms of truth.

These relations are thus specifically stated, because in them is found the authority for man to make use of all things which exist, that by such use, higher purposes may be subserved and better general conditions obtained. As the gardener destroys all weeds and foreign growths about the vegetables he would produce, so must the gardener 117in ideas pull up, eradicate or destroy, all false or decaying ideas which sap the vitality from those he would have flourish; and this authority is the same—the authority of the higher over the lower, to the extent of individual freedom and within the limits of the general good.

Such is the province of art, and man, in whatever department of nature he operates, is the artist, adding to her beauties, which she can produce by her laws, those which the evolution of higher ideas proposes. Thus art utilizes and beautifies all that nature produces. Nature alone could never produce a Central Park, nor the perfection in fruits and flowers that is now presented to please the taste and gladden the eye. No one will question the right of man to make from nature the most of beauty it is capable of, nor to make it most conducive to all his natural desires. And here is found the basis for the authority from which it is analogically argued, that man has the right to practice as an artist in ideas. The position this artist in ideas should be assigned should be as much higher in the scale of importance as ideas are higher than crude matter.

Government being the most formidable director of ideas and the most powerful opponent of their diffusion, if they are not in channels it can operate through, its perfectability according to the highest existing ideas is a matter of the most fearful importance. It is for this reason that so great importance attaches to the diffusion among the people of knowledge of the principles government should be constructed upon that its administration may be productive of the greatest individual, and the greatest public good, which it is possible to obtain from the application of the highest evolved ideas.

THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.

NO. III

It has been the intention to show the importance of unity of purpose in government, and that such unity of purpose can only be obtained by the application to administration of those principles which in operation produce unity in the kingdoms below the kingdom of 118ideas. Human government differs from all other kinds of government in this, that it is for the control of Mind instead of Matter. The natural direction the individual would pursue results not only from causes which arise in his material nature, but to these are superadded those which pertain to the Mental in contradistinction to Matter. Each individual is not only an epitome of all previous material forms which have been evolved, but he is also the finite representative of the Infinite Power which caused all those evolutions, and therefore has an individualized, determining power of his own to the extent that he represents the Infinite; and as this extent differs in degree so extensively among the total of individuals over whom government presides, it is the most difficult of all tasks to prescribe forms for it to operate through, by which it can reach and control this diversity.

This most serious difficulty which arises at every step in the search for the true source of government, comes from the innate sentiment of freedom in man, which is the truthful expression of the characteristics of the Infinite, which are indigenous, so to speak, to his nature. He involuntarily resists all attempts to exercise authority over him because of these sentiments. He feels, he realizes, that no individual, nor any number of individuals, has any authority from any competent authority to exercise supreme control over him; and thus it is that all individuals resist control.

Just at the point arrived at comes in the other part of the fact, which being considered, modifies the absoluteness of individuality. Every individual must either ever remember, or be compelled to remember, that he is but one of millions of individuals who live upon the face of the earth, each one of whom feels the same innate sentiment of self-right; and thus it comes that there should be no restraint at all over each individual exercising all his selfish ideas of rights strictly within his individual sphere; and that all these should be compelled to harmonize so that none may interfere with others. Even to this last proposition there are natural modifications to be inferred from everything below man. The higher order has the authority of its position in the natural scale of evolution, over all that precedes it; and this authority is of that absolute character which receives the sanction of nature in all the kingdoms which man can view.

The higher orders of ideas and thoughts should thus be the controlling power among men. They should assume the business of the artist in ideas, and prune, dig and destroy, if possible, all lower ideas which, live but to sap the vitality from the more advanced. The best 119expression, then, which it is possible for principles to find in the individualized productions of the highest animal form, must be sought in the most highly developed mentality; or in that mentality which expresses the most of the Infinite, and which is consequently the highest authority represented through humanity.

Mentality represents the most important department of the duality which constitutes the source of governmental power; but this, acting alone, would not prove the perfect principle. It would pursue its aims with no regard to sentiment or feeling. It would ruthlessly destroy all imperfections which debarred it from having absolute control, instead of endeavoring to consolidate their life with the higher and the better because it is the higher. To this active, sternly analytic principle, must be added the principle of unity or the affectional, which seeks to combine all mentality in one harmony. The head and the heart should act in concert; the head perceiving that the same general principles should be used to direct the forms of every department of life, and endeavoring to apply them to control humanity, should head the appeals of the heart, which, from its mainsprings of love and tenderness, feels, that the whole universe is bound together by the indissoluble ties of fraternity, and, therefore, should realize that as a father and mother, they should govern their children. Of these principles, government should be the true exponent, representative and administrator.

But here the question arises: How shall such government be inaugurated? How shall those who are the best representatives of advanced ideas and the broadest fraternal feeling become installed as the administrators of government? Every thinking person knows that no such persons or principles are in authority now, and that they have not been these many years. In the early days of the republic, which was constructed by men whose souls were imbued with these principles—or at least the fraternal principle—it may be fair to admit that something nearly assimilating to the true kind of government did exist. A government founded in the principles ours was could not have been organized except by men of the very highest order of development in the true principles of government. They were hundreds of years in advance of the general people, for whom they wrought, and it may be seriously questioned whether they have had any representatives since, and whether they have any at present, who are actuated by any such lofty patriotism as they were. So long as they lived it was but natural that the people should have continued them at the head of what they had constructed, by the means they prepared for the expression of 120their right of self-government. It is well demonstrated that these men fully realized the principles of freedom, equality and justice, which realization comes from the conspicuous development of the paternal and affectional elements. Mentality, it is plain, was not so conspicuously developed, for they did not comprehend that the time would come in which those who should fill their places should be almost infinitely lower in the scale of true governmental principles than they were, or that the controlling motives of such could ever descend from their lofty stand to grovel in the purely selfish. But the time has come and now is, in the which the present places the fathers of the republic occupied are filled by those who are not in any sense the representatives of the true principles of government. It is quite true that the people are responsible for the men they select to represent them, but that does not better the very bad fact that the people are not represented, any more than that the true principles of government are. When this fact is seriously considered, it becomes apparent that there is a difficulty somewhere in the processes of government which has such imperfections that the ends of government as understood by its founders are utterly defeated. The result of this imperfection is, that instead of the true and best representative men of the country—those whom the previous analysis points out as possessed of the qualities demanded in government—being chosen to perform the function for which they are adapted, they are left one side, while others without ideas are sent where they should go. In short, the whole governmental operations have been and are being prostituted to the selfish ambitions of party leaders, who do not care a whit what means are used so that they win thereby. This shows not only that there are imperfections in the organization, but that there is much which is radically wrong. It is even now being more than whispered around that there is a plot being matured by which some of those who are now in power intend to continue themselves in power, even if they are obliged to seize upon the government in spite of the people. Such a plot could only bring destruction upon the actors; but that such a disgraceful thing could occur, or even be conceived, proves that a remedy is needed somewhere, which shall prevent such persons acquiring the power they would thus prostitute to their own purposes, at the expense of the sacrifice of the rights of the people.

This government is either a government for the people or for the office holders; latter practices incline outside observers to the opinion that it is the people’s only in theory. If we examine the theory, it looks 121finely enough; but when the manner it is outwrought comes under observance, nothing can be found which entitles it to the name of the people’s government. It is not the people’s government by a very great deal; nor is it a government for one-half the people even; neither is it a government which guarantees equality to its citizens; every count which can be made is against it, as the exponent of principles upon which it professes to stand.

In the first instance, one-half of the people are debarred from all political rights whatever, and they are those who form the producing part of humanity, and whose interests in government are in every way equal to that of those who exercise all the political power. Thus at the very outset we find a professed equal government proscribing one-half the people over whom its authority is exercised; and, be it ever remembered, is fully maintained. While they are made responsible for all infringement of law, they have no voice in determining what that law shall be. While they are compelled to assist equally with the preferred class to maintain and support government by the payment of taxes, revenues, &c., they have no power to control the use that shall be made of them. This proscribed class, though living in the United States of America, a so-called Republic, are in no better condition and stand in no superior relation to the government they are compelled to give adhesion, respect and support to, than are those of the most absolute monarchy upon the face of the earth. What think you, enslaved people, of the great, the free, the exalted government of a country which professes so much and grants you nothing?

In the next instance, it is not the government of the one-half of the people it has really the semblance of being, and which many think it is. To completely establish this significant fact, the attention of the people is called to the immense minorities in the several States, and the relations which they sustain to a Presidential election, wherein the sum total of all the citizens of all the States who are permitted to cast their ballots, and who do so cast their ballots, for the electors who vote for the defeated candidate, exceed the sum total of all the citizens of all the States who are permitted to cast their ballots and who do so cast their ballots for the electors who vote for and elect their candidate. Such results have obtained; but a President thus elected is elected by the votes of the minority of the citizens of the United States who are permitted to vote, and consequently, within the Union as a whole, a person may occupy the Presidential chair against the will of the majority of the voting citizens of all the 122States. Such is the perfection of the forms which have been framed and used through which to obtain popular self-government; and such the results obtained.

The same line of argument applies with equal directness and force to the citizens of each State in relation to their entire State government, with the exception of such officers as are elected upon the ticket with the Governor; their representation in the lower House of Congress, and in their Legislatures and through their Legislators and their representation in the Senate of the United States may be, and often is, that of the minority of the voting citizens of the State. The same is also true of all incorporated cities outside of their general officers.

This condition of affairs shows that there are two conflicting principles ever operating against each other, and that their very worst features appear when their object is the “first office in the gift of the people,” which, above all others, should be filled by the choice of the majority of all the citizens of all the States.

Scarcely less in importance, as compared with the Chief Magistracy of the Union, is the importance of Congressional legislation, which should be determined by Representatives and Senators who should represent the majority of all the voting citizens of all the States. This government will always stand in danger of being overthrown by the unrepresented majority, so long as such forms of arriving at representation are allowed to determine these questions, which lie at the very basis of a republican form of government.

The whole difficulty which this question presents arises from the seeming stubbornness with which the people refuse to understand that the interests of the people as a whole can only be promoted by promoting the interests of each individual composing the whole. In this consideration the Democratic doctrine of States rights, to which the Democrats adhere even yet with so much apparent stubbornness, is utterly subversive of the first principles of unity and it may be emphatically stated that until enlightenment is obtained upon this point by the common ignorance of the country, there is no security from wars such as that from the effects of which we have not yet fully recovered. The same principle of States rights, as compared with those of all the States, if a correct principle of self-government, should also be recognized as the proper one to be acted upon in counties as against the State, and in cities as against counties and States, and in wards as against cities, and by citizens as against the wards in which they reside, and by the several partners of firms as against the authority of the firm as a whole. 123It is the only mischievous principle which is operating to destroy the Republic which is prophetic of so much civilization and advancement to the whole world.

Under the application of such principle a single government for all the “nations, kindred and tongues” of the earth would be utterly impossible and impracticable. Nothing but strife, contention and wars would follow a government founded on such principles of individuality as do not and will not recognize the superiority of the community as compared to the individual members of it. Upon this principle brought down to individuals, every individual would have the absolute right to act upon his own self-interests, no matter how seriously such action might interfere with others possessing the same right. The community would have no right to compel any restraints upon the individual under this principle of rule. This principle applied everywhere would carry us back to pre-historic times, when every individual was his own supreme authority, and maintained it at the risk of his life. This is the purest form of anarchy, and as such is laid down by all writers upon pre-historic times.

Why do not the advocates of States rights contend for the application of the same principle to its fullest extent, and thereby become consistent? Why do they advocate any general government at all? The truth and the facts of the case are, that such doctrines as recognize the rights of the individual as superior to the rights of the community in which he resides, are subversive of the first principles of order. Suppose such principles governed the entire sidereal and solar systems, what chance among so many vast planets would our little earth have? It is saved from destruction because there is a Prime Power which compels them all into harmony of action and movement, whatever courses their individual proclivities would lead them to. The application of this general superior controlling power in governmental affairs is the only method which can secure—because it will compel—harmony.

THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.

NO. IV.

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 when 124the 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 are 125no 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 option of 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.

126The 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 the 127European 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.

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