Of the Several Forms of GovernmentPreliminary RemarksSection I.Section II.Section III.Section IV.Section V.Section VI.Section VII.Section VIII.Section IX.Section X.Section XI.Section XII.Section XIII.Section XIV.
NOTES
1. Vattel B. 1. c. 1.
2. See Rousseau's Social Compact.
3. 1. Blacks Com. 49.
4. "Power in the people," says Mr. Burgh, "is like light in the sun, native, original, inherent, and unlimited, by any thing human. In government it may be compared to the reflected light of the moon; for it is only borrowed, delegated and limited by the intention of the people, whose it is, and to whom governors are to consider themselves as responsible, while the people are responsible only to GOD, themselves being the losers, if they pursue a false scheme of politics." Political Disquisitions, vol 1. c. 2.
5. Paine's Rights of Man, part X. p. 42. Albany Edition.
6. Hutchinson's Mor. Phil. vol. 2. 221.
7. Ibid. 226. 227.
8. Ibid. 232.
9. Declaration of American Independence.
10. 1. Vol. 48.
11. Page 40. Albany Edition.
12. Mackintosh on the French Revolution, pa. 115, 3d London edition.
13. Vattel, B. 1. c. 3. §. 27.
14. Page 42. Albany Edition.
15. What (says Judge Patterson, 2. Dallas, 308.) is a constitution? It is the form of government, delineated by the mighty hand of the people in which certain first principles of fundamental laws are established. The constitution is certain and fixed; it contains the permanent will of the people, and is the supreme law of the land; it is paramount to the power of the legislature, and can be revoked or altered only by the authority that made it. The life-giving principle and the death-doing stroke must proceed from the same hand. What are legislatures? Creatures of the constitutions: They derive their power from the constitution: It is their commission, and therefore all their acts must be conformable thereto, or they will be void. The constitution is the work or will of the people themselves, in their original sovereign, and unlimited capacity. Law is the work or will of the legislature in their derivation and subordinate capacity. The one is the work of the Creator, the other of the creature. The constitution fixes limits to the exercise of legislative authority, and prescribes the orbit within which it must move. In short the constitution is the sun of the political system, around which all legislative, executive, and judicial bodies must revolve. Whatever may be the case in other countries, yet in this there can be no doubt, that every act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution is absolutely void.
16. Page 139.
17. It has been said, that to call a government "a representative democracy, is a contradiction in terms, and as improper as to call it a democratic aristocracy.". — Swift's Laws of Connecticut, vol. 1, 21. — With all deference to this opinion, I would ask, whom do these representatives represent? If they represent themselves, only, then I grant the government is not a representative democracy, but an elective oligarchy, or if you please, a democratic aristocracy: in which the people have indeed no power but to "choose their rulers.". — But if these representatives represent their constituents, that is, the people; then is their authority not their own, but the authority of the people; and a government administered either directly or indirectly by the authority of the people is a democracy, as is agreed on all hands: if administered by the people themselves, then is it a simple democracy; but if the people appoint some few from among themselves to represent them, then I conceive such a government play, with the strictest propriety, be called a representative democracy.
18. Travels of Anacharsis. vol. 2. c. 14.
19. Robertson's History of Greece.
20. Travels into Italy.
21. P. 186. 187. 188 Phila. Edi.
22. B. 8. c. 5.
23. Spirit of Laws. B. 3. c. 9. 10. B. 5. c. 14.
24. B. 2. c. 4.
25. St. Estienne.
26. Hutch. Moral Phil. vol. 2. 244.
27. See 1 Black. Com. p. 308.
28. Hutch. Mor. Phil. vol. 2. 258.
29. Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. 1. 51.
30. Mackintosh's Defence of the French Revolution, pa. 264.
31. Ibid. 337.
32. "It was reckoned, there were 232 members of the first parliament of George the first who had places, pensions, or titles: besides a great many brothers, and heirs apparent, of the nobility, or persons otherwise likely to be under undue influence; the number of which was not below fifty, which added together makes 282. A frightful majority," says Mr. Burgh, "on the side of the court. And there is no reason, he adds, to suppose the Augean stable is generally clearer now, than it was then." Pol. Disq. vol. 2. 44.
33. Blacks. Com. vol. 1. 51.
34. Of Parliaments, 49.
35. Davenant. — 11. 300. (quoted in Burgh's Pol. Disq. vol. 3. 4.)
36. T. T. T. formerly a delegate in congress from South Carolina, and after wards a member of the house of representatives in congress, from the same state.
37. Hutcheson's Moral Phil. vol. 2. 239. Vattel. B. 1. c. 1. § 4.
38. Ibid. Vattel. Ib. § 10.
39. Ibid.
40. By the act of union, 5 Ann. c. 8. it is declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland shall be united into one kingdom by the name of Great Britain: That the united kingdom shall be represented by one parliament: That the succession to the monarchy of G. B. shall be the same as was before settled with regard to England. The laws relating to trade, customs, and excise, shall be the same in Scotland, as in England. But all the other laws of Scotland shall remain in force but alterable by the parliament of Great Britain. — v. 1. Black. Com. 96.
41. Burlamaqui B. 2. part 2. c. 1. §. 40. 44.
42. See Black. Com. vol. 1. p. 96. 97. and 98. in notes.
43. Burgh's Pol. Disq. B. 1. c. 4.
44. Guthrie's Geography, article Netherlands.
45. B. 9. c. 13.
46. Pufendorf's L. n. & b. B. 7. c. 5.
47. Ibid. B. 7. c. 5.
48. Articles of confederation and perpetual union between the United States of America, Art. 6.
49. Ibidem, Art. 2.
50. Pufendorf, B. 7. c. 5.
51. Pufendorf B. 7. c. 5.
52. Ibidem, in notis.
53. C.U.S. Art. 4. & 2.
54. Pufendorf, B. 7. c. 5
55. Pufendorf, B. 7. c. 5.
56. Pufendorf, B. 7. c. 5.
57. Article 13.
58. See Vattel, B. 1. c. 2. and the other writers on government, generally.
59. Declaration of Independence.
60. Declaration of Independence.
61. On civil government. c. 19.
62. Federalist No. 6.
63. B. 7. c. 5.
64. Ibid.
65. On civil government. c. 19. a work with which every American ought to be perfectly acquainted.
