Government

“ Let our government by laws be the chief object of our worldly concern: and as we value that, let our value and estimation rise for the supreme head, and every branch of the executive power, under which we live so happy and easy at home, whilst they all join in making the laws the measure of their whole administration. ”

“ Tested by these propositions, what conditions and relations does the government of the United States, as a whole composed of parts, present? Does it form one homogeneous whole, the paramount interests of the parts of which is the best welfare of the whole? Does each and every part act in unity and harmony with every other part, and in turn yield to the preponderant authority of the whole, with that grace and dignity which bespeak unison of purpose and interest? ”

“ A place where every interest and shade of opinion in the country can have its cause even passionately pleaded, in the face of the government and of all other interests and opinions, can compel them to listen, and either comply, or state clearly why they do not, is in itself, if it answered no other purpose, one of the most important political institutions that can exist any where, and one of the foremost benefits of free government. ”

“ But there is a form of government which produces a love of law, liberty and country, instead of disorder, irregularity and a faction: which produces as much and more independence of spirit, and as much undaunted bravery: as much esteem of merit in preference to wealth, and as great simplicity, sincerity and generosity to all the community, as others do to a faction; Avhich produces as great a desire of knowledge, and infinitely better faculties to pursue it; which besides produces security of property, and the desire and opportunities for commerce, which the others obstruct. ”

“ It is, Sir, the people's Constitution, the people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people. ”

“ It is from the want of some test, to determine whether a form of government, or law, is founded in the good or evil qualities of man, that the disciples of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, have entered into the field of of controversy, with so much zeal. Each, though blinded to the defects of the system he defends, from education, habit, or a supposed necessity of enlisting under one, clearly discern. ”

“ A Government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects committed to its care, and to the complete execution of the trusts for which it is responsible, free from every other control, but a regard to the public good and to the sense of the People. ”

“ Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty. ”

“ New and Old Conceptions of Government.—To draw such a distinction between Government and people as if two separate spheres of power, a stronger and higher, and a weaker and lower, negotiated and came to terms with each other, is a remnant of transmitted political sentiment, which still accurately represents the historic establishment of the conditions of power in most States. ”

“ The General Government, strictly confined to its delegated functions, and the State left in the undisturbed exercise of all else, we have a theory and practice which fits our Government for immeasurable domain, and might, under a millennium of nations, embrace mankind. ”

“ Government is the only form in which we can envisage the State, but it is by no means identical with it. That the State is a mystical conception is something that must never be forgotten. ”

“ Governments must be made for human beings as they are, or as they are capable of speedily becoming; and in any state of cultivation which mankind, or any class among them, have yet attained, or are likely soon to attain, the interests by which they will be led, when they are thinking only of self-interest, will be almost exclusively those which are obvious at first sight, and which operate on their present condition. ”

“ What reality there is in our glorious system of constitutional government, with its King, Lords and Commons, whose duties and rights are so accurately defined that none can trench on those of the rest! ”

“ I have ever abhorred, since the first dawn of my understanding to this its obscure twilight, all the operations of opinion, fancy, inclination, and will, in the affairs of government, where only a sovereign reason, paramount to all forms of legislation and administration, should dictate. Government is made for the very purpose of opposing that reason to will and caprice, in the reformers or in the reformed, in the governors or in the governed, in kings, in senates, or in people. ”

“ That government should be instituted and conducted for the benefit of the governed; and that the people are the proper depositories of power—principles recognised in his institutions—were truths so deeply hidden from mankind, as to demand an intellect of the highest order for their discovery. ”

“ Giving a comprehensive glance at the world it will be seen that government of some kind is everywhere established, which purports to rule the people embraced within certain geographical boundaries. An analysis of each form, from the crudest and most barbarous up through all the modifications of civilized government, will discover that each government was a true exponent of the character of the people by or over whom it was established. Every country, as it advances in intellectual and moral development, demands modifications in its government adapted to the improved capacity of the people. ”

“ The people, not privileged orders, are to draw eminent qualities from eminent men. How? By election and responsibility, or by rejecting the government of authority, and exercising self government. A monarchy made out of Aristotle, as girls make a peacock by patching together shreds of silk, in the face of his unequivocal preference of a popular government for an agricultural people, would be a perfect emblem of authority. ”

“ In unbalanced governments—pure monarchy, pure aristocracy, pure democracy—such maxims are the only barrier which restrains the government from the utmost excesses in the direction of its characteristic tendency. ”

“ CHAPTER XVI GOVERNMENTS OF THE GLOBE
The best definition of Government may be found in Wordsworth’s lines:
“The simple plan
That they should take who have the power
And they should keep who can.”
In every community on Earth, the strongest, the craftiest or the wealthiest of the male inhabitants conspire to compel their weaker, stupider or poorer brothers and sisters to pay them for the privilege of remaining on earth.
Government by the Strongest is called an Absolute Monarchy. ”

“ Government is the exercise according to law of the executive power, and the 'prince' or 'magistrate' is the man or body of men charged with this administration; 'a body intermediary between the subjects and the sovereign, charged with the execution of the laws, and with the maintenance of civil and political freedom' (Ib.) Where all or most of the citizens are magistrates, or charged with the supreme functions of government, we have a democracy; where a few, an aristocracy; where one is so charged, a monarchy. ”

“ A popular government, just made more popular, has established, without the slightest hindrance, a law and an official organization that treat with contempt the essential principles of constitutional rule. ”

“ The first and most important rule of legitimate or popular government, that is to say, of government whose object is the good of the people, is therefore, as I have observed, to follow in everything the general will. ”

“ How much more sublime is the idea of forming a great nation, by a chain of republicks, subordinate to publick good, than by a chain of satraps subordinate to imperial will, or of chartered companies subordinate to selfish avarice? Such a system stands upon national interest. No people, except ourselves, have seriously attempted to make this interest the basis of civil government. ”

“ For government is the ordering of the magistracies of the state; and these the community share between themselves, either as they can attain them by force, or according to some common equality which there is amongst them, as poverty, wealth, or something which they both partake of. ”

“ A people may be unprepared for good institutions; but to kindle a desire for them is a necessary part of the preparation. To recommend and advocate a particular institution or form of government, and set its advantages in the strongest light, is one of the modes, often the only mode within reach, of educating the mind of the nation not only for accepting or claiming, but also for working, the institution. ”

“ We ask as one of the rights that government is bound to secure that in the administration of its power it shall make use of the fullest wisdom of the whole people; that the entire popular brain and social conscience shall take cognizance of and be responsible for all acts of government. ”

“ No government can continue good, but under the control of the people; ”

“ It becomes the duty, then, of each individual who can catch but faint glimpses of such a consummation as universal government, to point it out and to assist by all legitimate means in the dissemination of light upon it and all relevant subjects. It becomes the duty of each nation to see that its people are educated to the same ultimate perception ”

“ I heartily accept the motto,—"That government is best which governs least;" and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe,—"That government is best which governs not at all;" and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. ”

“ By a constitutional policy working after the pattern of Nature, we receive, we hold, we transmit our government and our privileges, in the same manner in which we enjoy and transmit our property and our lives. The institutions of policy, the goods of fortune, the gifts of Providence, are handed down to us, and from us, in the same course and order. ”

“ Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom. ”

“ The broad assertion is made, that there is no argument against universal governmental administration, but that every possible argument urges all people to prepare for it as the thing of all things to be desired by them. ”

“ The government of all, by all, and for all, is a Democracy. ”

“ A great and an important end truly, which is nothing less, than the establishment of a new government, right in the midst of our present pro-slavery one.
A government, is a system of authority sustained by either the rulers, or the ruled, or by both conjointly. ”

“ The patriot, the philosopher, and the statesman, look to this spot, where the legislative authority of the Republic has an uncontrolled operation, for that perfect system of laws, which shall at once develope the wisdom of the government, and display the justice and benevolence of its policy. ”

“ If we intend to comprise in the idea of Order all that society requires from its government which is not included in the idea of Progress, we must define Order as the preservation of all kinds and amounts of good which already exist, and Progress as consisting in the increase of them. ”

“ That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving all their just powers from the consent of the governed." Here is the great truth, the vital principle, upon which our Government is founded, and which demonstrates that the right of a voice in the conduct of the government, and the selection of the rulers, is a right and privilege of all citizens. ”

“ In uniting for this purpose, they agree to be governed by certain established rules and principles; and the governing of the people of a state or nation according to these rules, is called civil government. The word government also signifies the rules and principles themselves by which the people are governed; and sometimes the persons who administer the government--that is those who make the laws of a state and carry them into effect--are called the government. ”

“ But we should look twice before we should thus qualify a government in which the chief makes his will outweigh the wishes of the citizens, or a government in which the will of the citizens outweighs that of the chief. ”

“ That form of government which God himself had established, that code of laws which God himself had promulgated, those institutions which infinite wisdom had provided, in special relation to the climate, soil, and situation of the country, to the genius, temper, and character of the people, became intolerable from the prevalence of vice and impiety. It is a trite maxim, that man is governed by hope and fear. ”

“ Having satisfied ourselves on these two points, and ascertained the form of government which combines the greatest amount of good with the least of evil, what further remains is to obtain the concurrence of our countrymen, or those for whom the institutions are intended, in the opinion which we have privately arrived at. To find the best form of government; to persuade others that it is the best ”