A LECTURE ON GOVERNMENT.

BY PROFESSOR B. TUCKER.

No. IV.

$5 PER ANNUM

lations effected by society, and the duties arising from them which are to be enforced by government.

Pursuing this investigation, we may hope to arrive at just ideas of the proper ends and objects of government.

Delivered before the Students of William and Mary College, May we not farther hope to obtain some lights which

March 6th, 1937.

William and Mary College, March 6th, 1837. Dear Sir :-At a meeting of our fellow students, the pleasing duty was assigned us, of requesting for publication a copy of your very eloquent address, delivered before them this day.

may aid us in deciding what are the best means of attaining these ends? If such hopes be reasonable, then there is no subject connected merely with the temporal welfare of man that so much demands examinationnone which promises so rich a reward to the patient and

Your compliance with this request will be truly gratifying to candid investigator. But he who would secure it, must

us, and to those whom we represent.

With sentiments of profound respect,

We remain your ob't serv'ts,

Judge B. Tucker.

T. H. MORRIS,
M. BANISTER,
W. P. MUNFORD,
E. P. PITT,

JOHN M. SPEED.

come to his task with a mind duly prepared to receive the teachings of reason, and to follow her guidance whithersoever she may lead.

Why else is it that a subject which, during six thousand years, has occupied the thoughts and researches of men able and wise in their generations, has so long remained shrouded in thick darkness? If that be true, which all of us believe, and of which most of us entertain no doubt, then, during the whole of that time, this Williamsburg, March 7th, 1937. darkness has been never penetrated but by occasional Gentlemen:-Your polite and flattering note of yesterday is just received. I beg you to accept my grateful acknowledgments gleams, calculated rather to dazzle and bewilder than to of this new proof of the unmerited favor with which my imper- enlighten. And why is this, but that the investigation fect services are received by the sons of my venerated alma has been conducted almost exclusively by practical mater. I shall take pleasure in complying with the substance of statesmen, engaged in the actual business of governyour request. My reasons for not fulfilling it to the letter, will, Iment, and pledged by their prejudices and by their in

trust, be justly appreciated by you.

It is now two years since I first formed a resolution no more to tax the partial kindness of my young friends with the publication of any thing that I might write. But at the same time that I decline for this reason a direct compliance with your application, I propose to use it as an apology for giving to the press the lecture of which you ask a copy. Recommended by your approbation, which the Editor of the Southern Literary Messenger will probably regard as an augury of public favor, I make no doubt it will be acceptable to him. To him, therefore, it is my purpose to send it, with a copy of your note. In that flourishing

periodical its circulation will be as extensive as your partiality

or my own vanity can desire, and far more so than any intrinsic

value of its own can deserve.

With high respect and sincere regard,

I remain, gentlemen,

Your friend and ob't serv't,

The subject of government is that which is to occupy our attention through the course of lectures on which we are about to enter. To recommend it to your attention, to impress you with a sense of its importance, and to lay before you an outline of my plan, is the purpose of this discourse.

terests to ancient errors and inveterate abuses? Would we but bethink us that the science of civil polity and jurisprudence is a branch of that great system of moral government by which the author of all things rules the universe, we should feel that it becomes us to approach the subject with awe. Whether we propose to ourselves to minister in this great system, or content ourselves with investigating its principles, we should come to our task as to the performance of a holy function. The bias of faction and of interest must be shaken off; the aspirings of ambition must be restrained; the pride of opinion must be renounced, and we must hold ourselves prepared alike to defy the “vultus instantis tyranni," and to disregard the "civium ardor prava jubentium."

Hence, gentlemen, the philosophy of government is a study most appropriate to the season of unprejudiced and uncorrupted youth, and to academic shades, never disturbed by the clamors of faction. The frown of power has no terrors here; the temptations of ambition have no allurements for us. To us who teach, and to you who learn, there is nothing so desirable as the discovery of truth; and to the search of this we can here address ourselves with a single-minded zeal, of which we, in other circumstances, and you, perhaps, in after life, might be incapable.

On the investigation to which I now invite your atTo perform the task proposed, we must investigate tention, we must prepare ourselves to enter with temthe philosophy of government. We must inquire into pered ardor, with regulated enthusiasm, with patient those particulars in the nature of man, which render | hope; looking for the reward of our labors to Him, who society necessary to him, and those circumstances which never denies the light of truth to them that diligently render government necessary to the purposes of society. seek it.

We must examine the relations which man bears to Man is emphatically a social animal. Other creaman in a state of nature, the modifications of these re-tures are solitary or gregarious, according to the impulse VOL. III.-27

of instincts, which make them find pleasure in the pre- I are alike the objects of her tender care; and the endusence of others of their kind, or cultivate a surly satis-ring ties which bind man to his kind are spun from the faction in secluded loneliness. But man is social from fine and delicate fibres, which, in the prolonged internecessity. The very laws of his nature impose society change of good offices, are shot forth from heart to upon him, as one of the conditions of his existence. heart. He is social in the same sense in which we say of some animals, that they are of the sea-of others, that they are of the earth or air. Society is the very element in which he must live; and the water is no more necessary to the fishes of the deep than society is to man.

Originating thus in the weakness of man, the primary end and object of society is SECURITY. To war against the dangers that assail, to guard against the dangers that threaten—to destroy, or drive to a distance, every thing by which security might be invaded,-is the purpose for which men must first be supposed to have associated themselves together. Here is the inducement to accomplish that conquest over the brute creation to which man was ordained by his Maker.

In the prosecution of this, some races of animals have been annihilated-some are driven to hide themselves from the face of man in the depths of the forest, and in the caverns of the earth,-and others of more tame and practicable tempers have been subdued to the uses of the lord of creation.

He enters into life in circumstances that impose this necessity upon him. Other animals bring with them into the world a covering to shelter them from the inclemencies of the season; the faculty of locomotion is acquired in a few hours; the power of obtaining and the instinct which directs in the choice of food, are imparted long before the care of the mother is withdrawn; and, from the moment of their birth, the parent brute is in condition to cater for her offspring, and to defend or hide them from danger. But with man the case is widely different. Whole years, with all their vicissi- Thus was security obtained; but though these enetudes of heat and cold, and parching drought, and mies were subdued or destroyed, their place was taken drenching rain, must pass away, before he acquires by another, more formidable than all the rest. Man strength to escape or to endure without perishing an became the enemy of man. The social union, which exposure, even of a few hours, to either of these ex- had sprung from a sense of common danger, had ceased tremities. In the state of absolute helplessness in with its cause; but a new danger thus arose, which did which he enters into life, his mother is hardly less help-but bind together those who yet remained united, more less than himself, and both must perish did not the institutions of social life connect them with others to whom their existence is never so precious, as when in this precarious condition. To these institutions the father owes the means of identifying his offspring, who thus become the objects of that instinct of parental love which, in the brute creation, the mother alone is seen to display.

Do I go too far then, when I assert that society is essential to the preservation of the human species, and that man cannot be supposed to have ever existed out of a social relation? Or must I compliment the lord of creation by throwing a veil over that state of puling helplessness, in which the inhabitants of an ant-hill might make him their prey?

strongly than before.

It would thus appear, that, under whatever circumstances society has been formed, the prevailing inducement to it must have been a desire of security. We may be disposed to reject this idea as disparaging to the character of the bold and intrepid being that man, in the infancy and in the ruder states of society, has generally shown himself. But there are dangers at which the heart of the hero quails like that of the veri est coward. The danger that threatens the domestic fire-side, the prattling urchins, the nursing mother, and her tender babe, is one to which the brave are, perhaps, more sensitive than other men. To leave them alone and exposed, without protectors, without friends, while the hunter, in pursuit of the necessary means of subsistence, plunges into the wilderness, and for weeks and months together pursues his prey, would never be endured. The very wildness of his life, apparently most foreign to the social state, would make society the more necessary to his peace of mind.

How erroneously do they judge, who would, for this, undervalue the dignity of human nature. When God gave man "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth," he gave him, as the charter of this gift, as It happens accordingly, that not only do we never the means of establishing and extending and perpetuat- find man dissociated from his fellows, but in that rude ing this dominion, the very helplessness which I have state in which he is incapable of being moulded into described. In this, man's weakness is his strength; for extended and civilized society, he is bound to the memthis it is which makes the strength of all the strength bers of his petty tribe with a fervor of enthusiasm to of each. This season of dependent weakness, pro- which those of larger communities are strangers. They longed until the senses have acquired their perfection—are necessary to him; for, but for them, the wolf or till the affections have begun to bud-till the dawn of the tiger might invade his hut, or his race might be thought has broken up the darkness of his mind,-swept from the face of the earth by the incursion of a makes him for a long time the constant recipient of hostile tribe. benefits, which the infirmities and cravings of his nature teach him to prize and to receive with gratitude and love. It is by this fostering process that the heart is warmed to a sense of inextinguishable obligation, and puts forth those filaments which cling to the breast that feeds and cherishes him, with a tenacity that no time can relax, and no violence can sunder. The mother thus becomes a connecting link among those, who

At this day, and viewing ourselves as members of a society, whose widely extended territory makes it altogether improbable that the horrors of war will ever be brought home to our fire-sides, we may be disposed to undervalue the security which we enjoy. It is danger which makes men sensible of its importance, and, in the total absence of that, we almost scorn to think of it as one of the elements of our happiness. But, think of it

as we may, it is that which gives their value to all the rest: for, without it, there can be nothing we can call our own. What prompts us to "add field to field and house to house," and to lay broad and deep the foundations of our prosperity? It is security. We know that reverses may come, and we require more than we need, least some trifling loss should leave us less than we need. What makes man every where eager to strengthen that sacred tie on which the happiness of life depends, and to render it indissoluble? It is the desire of security. Why else are men willing thus to bind themselves ir revocably to a choice of which they may repent?

to resort to it habitually, not only for the adjustment of controversies with the members of another band, but for the settlement of domestic difficulties.

Here, then, would be the infancy of government, developed from those embryo associations which the infirmity of man's nature makes necessary to his existence. You will see that governments, originating from such causes, must, from the nature of the thing, be uniformly characterized by certain features, which we find, in point of fact, to be common to all governments, and the uniform existence of which cannot be accounted for so well on any other theory. The very ends and objects of such governments would require three things.

1. That each individual should be responsible to his own society, alone, for any wrongs done to the members of that, or any other society.

2. That each society should be responsible collectively to other societies for wrongs done by its members to other societies, or their members.

3. Hence, thirdly, would arise the duty of obedience from each individual to that society, thus made answerable for him, and securing him from all responsibility but to itself.

This is the protection to which allegiance is the reciprocal and correlative duty; and in this reciprocity, we find the origin of the inseparable connexion between allegiance and protection. The two are mutually cause and consequence of each other. Let the responsibility of the community for the individual be once established, and his duty of obedience to the community will follow as a necessary consequence.

A little reflection will lead us to see that this same desire of security must have been mainly influential to induce men to submit themselves to the restraints of government. If it be true, and I trust I have shown that it must be so, that society of some sort is one of the very conditions of our existence, then society must always have been found among men under all circumstances. But the ends which render society necessary, might be accomplished by small associations. There is, therefore, no warrant for supposing large ones, antecedent to the institution of government. Among savages, we find none but petty tribes, composed of a few individuals, who may be supposed to have become united by the ties of blood and marriage, or by the offices of friendship. Indeed, there is something exclusive in such associations; and while we see the individual man irresistibly impelled to connect himself with his fellow man, we find that so soon as the society which necessity prescribes has been formed, a spirit of repulsion manifests itself toward all similar associa- On the other hand, let it be admitted that he is bound tions. to obey, and they who command must, of course, be reLooking, then, to the nature of man, and the circum-sponsible for the results of his obedience. stances in which he was placed in the world, we shall see mankind scattered over the face of the earth, not as insulated individuals, but in clustering groups, united by the necessities of nature, by the ties of kindred, and the reciprocal experience of benefits. We shall see each of these groups assuming a sort of collective personality, and soon learning to look with jealousy or envy on others. Of such connections or associations, not yet bound together by any tie that constitutes a government, permit me to speak by the name of BANDS

or SOCIETIES.

From the combined action of both principles, it will follow, that the individual being responsible to the community, and the community responsible for the individual, he cannot be responsible to any other authority.

You will see plainly in this sketch the outline of the few features which are common to all governments. You will see in it the source of that peculiar authority called sovereignty, the reason of its exercise, and the tests of its existence.

On this subject of sovereignty so much has been said, and so little is understood, that I am particularly pleased with the theory I have suggested; because it will render us familiar with a notion of government well calcu

ing sovereignty, so common and so perplexing.

It must unavoidably and frequently happen, that between individual members of such bands, and individuals of some other band, collisions would arise. When-lated to preserve us from a confusion of ideas concernever these should be of such a nature as to provoke mortal hostility, it would be generally found that the members of each would make common cause with their associate, whether to vindicate his quarral, to redress his wrongs, or to defend his life. Hence, fierce and bloody contests would arise. Each of these would leave behind it the germ of other strifes, and, unless some remedy were found, extermination to one or both would often be the consequence.

I am aware that another theory has found favor with most writers. I speak of the patriarchal, as it is called. If by this it be meant that in the earliest ages there was always recognized a sort of authority in the parent over his children, and a mysterious tie connecting these together, it affirms no more than is true of all men in all times and countries. To say that this existed before the existence of any other society, is but to It could hardly fail to happen, that in some such case affirm what the very idea of our common origin necesa parley might lead to an agreement of the parties to sarily implies. In this sense the proposition embraces, submit the controversy to the arbitrament of their re- in the beginning, the whole human race then in existspective friends, with an understanding that the asso-ence, and does but import that they continued united ciates of him who should be found to have done the together until they fell out among themselves. That wrong should punish, or force him to repair it. The they did so fall out is certain-and in all after times we satisfaction to all parties, which would generally result find mankind united together in associations in which, from the adoption of such a plan, would soon lead them | doubtless, the tie of blood was an element, but plainly

only one of many elements of union, embracing indi- |ceive a strict, faithful and scrupulous attention. Thus viduals of various families and races. we see that those associations which make light of the

If we look for the testimony of history, we find, in-responsibility of the collective whole for the acts of the deed, in scripture, instances of what we call familiarly members, and are occasionally found countenancing the patriarchal associations. But we have clear evidences wrongs done by individuals to the members of other of society, of some sort, antecedent to these. More-states, are not recognized as properly belonging to the over, the oldest and most authentic of them all is, cer- commonwealth of nations. By some states they may tainly, not a case of a father exercising authority over indeed be employed and countenanced as instruments his children or his kindred. It is the case of Abraham. of annoyance to an enemy, and by all they may be We find him, on one occasion, at the head of three hun- tolerated and endured for reasons of state. This, to dred and eighteen trained troops. Were these his own? the reproach of Europe, has been long true of the BarWe are expressly told so. Were they his descendants, bary Powers. But we have lately seen, that when the the progeny of numerous wives? He was at that time forbearance of France was exhausted, or when her views childless; nor did he until afterwards become the father were directed to a different policy, the power of Algiers even of the misbegotten Ishmael. Were they his kin- was crushed, and her political existence blotted out, dred? By no means; for, in the beginning of his ca- without a word of remonstrance from any other state. reer, God had said to him, "Get thee out of thy coun- Even the characteristic jealousy of the aggrandizement try, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, of France, which England has always cherished, could unto a land that I will show thee." He did so, taking not make her so insensible to her own honor as to only his wife, "and Lot his brother's son." We then prompt a single measure in order to prevent the anhave the history of his separation from Lot; and be-nexation of that principality to the French dominions. tween that event and the birth of Ishmael, comes the history of his successful expedition, at the head of his own people, to rescue Lot from the king of Elam.

Now, what do we see in this corresponding with the idea of a patriarchal government, in the strict sense of the government of a father over his children? Nothing at all--but much to show that society and something like government already existed on some other basis, and nothing that does not well coincide with the theory that I have suggested.

Could a decent pretext for interference have been found, oceans of blood would have been shed, before France would have been permitted to secure to herself so important a port on the Mediterranean. The consequence attached to Gibraltar Minorca and Malta, in most European wars, makes this unquestionable.

It is only then in those associations which hold themselves responsible for the conduct of their members, that the law of nations fully recognizes a national character, a complete political personality. The correlative of this, as I have shown, is the duty of obedience on the part of each member to the community; and his exemption from all other responsibility, from which it is at once the right and the duty of the state to protect him.

I have said that I am desirous to recommend this theory to you, because it perfectly coincides with the results which we find throughout the world. If this theory be true, it explains how it is that all governments are established on the three great principles IDeny this right, and you take away the consideration have laid down. But whether these principles thus originated or no, of thus much we may be sure, that, however governments differ from each other, they all have these things in common. 1. That each individual is responsible to his own community for his acts. 2. That the community is responsible to all the world for the acts of its members; and 3. As a consequence of these, that the individual member is responsible to none but his own community.

of his obedience. Remove this obligation, and you free the state from all responsibility for the acts of one whom you do not permit her to command and control. The converse of this reasoning is equally just, and will prove, that by disallowing any one of the three grand principles of political association of which I have spoken, you abolish all the rest; you dissolve the cement of political society; you loosen its foundations; you break down the whole into one shapeless ruin, and remit its members to a state of rude nature.

Here, then, you find the true idea of sovereignty. This it is that places on the elevated platform of perfect equality, every political society, however constituted, and of whatever magnitude. The republic treats on equal terms with the monarchy; the petty canton with the wide spread empire; for each brings to the

I have already remarked, that the device intended to guard against collisions with other tribes, and to ensure the reparation of wrongs done by the members of one to the members of another, would soon be applied to the no less important object of preserving domestic peace, and enforcing justice between the members of the same tribe. Such application completes the idea of government, and supplies all that is wanting to per-negotiation the same unquestioned right to command fect the sketch of those few particulars, in which all governments are found to resemble each other.

the obedience of its people, and each frankly pledges the same unreserved responsibility for their acts.

If we may know the tree by its fruits, we may judge It would seem from what has been said that, in or from the universality of these principles of government, der to fulfil the purposes for which societies have been and of these alone, that the evils they are intended to erected into governments, the attention of those who remedy are those which have led to the establishment frame and of those who administer them, should be priof governments. To this day they are the primary marily directed to two great objects. Of these, the first objects of all political institutions. To the accomplish- is to preserve peace by such regulations as may prevent ment of these objects the frame of every government is or redress or punish the wrongs of our own people to shaped; and by the common consent of all enlightened other nations, and to place ourselves in a condition to nations, we do not impute the character of a body exact the like respect for our rights. The second is to politic to any society in which these things do not re-order matters at home with a due regard to the equal

as they are beautiful and plausible, are calculated to lull vigilance into fatal slumber; and lead us to suspect, that a certain degree of deformity, and slight aberrations from theoretical perfection, may produce in themselves no mischiefs which are not more than counterbalanced by the salutary diffidence of the system, and jealousy of its administrators, which they are calculated to provoke.

But, however we may cheer ourselves to our task, by indulging a hope that mankind, made wise by repeated error, may at last detect the great arcanum on which the adaptation of government to its proper objects de

rights of all, securing to each citizen the tranquil enjoyment of life, liberty and property, providing remedies for all injuries, prescribing punishments for all crimes, and enforcing all these regulations by a well arranged system of jurisprudence. A government which accomplishes these ends, and affords a reasonable security for their accomplishment in future, is a good government. We may have occasion hereafter to consider the wisdom of comprehending other objects within the scope of its operations, and we may come to conclude that its energies may be wisely employed in their accomplishment. But for the present we may confidently assume, that such a government as I have supposed is good, no mat-pends, the fulfilment of that hope is hardly to be expected ter how adopted, nor by whom prescribed; and that one which does not secure these important points is bad, though in the formation of it the most ingenious theories that were ever devised for the perfection of government, should have been faithfully studied and adopted. I beg you not to understand me as insinuating that there is no choice among the various theories of government. Far from it. The very object of our present researches is to ascertain which is best among the different theories to which the ingenuity of man, in all ages, has given birth. I would only persuade you to look, not to the beauty and symmetry of any proposed system, nor to its origin, but to its adaptation to the proper and necessary ends of government. We should ask ourselves, "is it like to effectuate these?" If so, it is worth a trial. But experience alone can decide whe-gages them in the service of his profligate ambition; he ther it will effectuate them; and if, being tried, it fails to do so, then, whether imposed by force, or adopted by free choice; whether the creature of circumstances, or the work of Solon, and Lycurgus, and Numa; whether prescribed by the authority of one, or adopted by the unanimous voice of millions, it is bad, and worthy of condemnation. In the language of a great master of political philosophy, “a government of five hundred obscure country curates and pettifogging attornies, is not good for twenty-four millions of people, even though it were chosen by forty-eight millions."

The world has seen many instances of governments devised on theoretical principles, mainly with a view to the security of equal rights. How these have succeeded, history and the present abject condition of those countries which were the subjects of those experiments, show but too plainly. With the circumstances which attended the rise and progress and downfall of Rome, which led her from freedom to despotism-which raised her to the utmost height of power, and plunged her into the lowest abyss of degradation, we are all familiar. We read too of Greece, the cradle of liberty and the birthplace of art, science and literature-and we see her, for near two thousand years, doomed to wear the chains of domestic usurpation or foreign tyranny.

Is it then true, that that which is good in theory is bad in practice? Far from it. The truths taught by these examples, although humbling to the pride, and discouraging to the hopes of man, are not yet so disheartening as such a conclusion would be. But they teach us to act and to judge with caution. They teach us to distinguish between means and ends. They teach us that present enjoyment is not permanent security; and above all, they teach us that "the price of liberty is eternal vigilance." They show us the danger of beautiful and plausible theories, which, in proportion

in our day. The history of the world shows us all nations, that have ever tasted of liberty, passing through the same appointed cycle, and, at longer or shorter periods, returning to the same points. During the first few years that follow the establishment of freedom, the experience of its advantages and blessings commend it to the hearts of men, and make it an object of almost idolatrous devotion. But the prosperity which accompanies it is too apt to debauch the mind. The sure rewards of industry, activity and enterprise, make the pursuit of gain the prevailing habit, and the love of gain the master passion of the people. It is through this passion that the demagogue successfully assails them: he corrupts them with the spoils of the treasury; he tempts them with the plunder of the rich; he en

gilds the fetters he prepares for them; and teaches them to wear them as the badges of party, and the trappings of distinction, until, familiar with their weight, they permit them to be rivetted on their limbs.

The season, during which this process is going on, is the season of tumultuary elections, the reign of mobs and anarchy and lawless violence. It is the season when leaders, drunk with ambition, and a rabble, drunk with flattery and alcohol, unite to plunder and oppress the middle classes, and shout the praises of parties and demagogues.

This cannot last. The spoils which purchase the vote and the shout and the bludgeon of the laborer, debauch him into habits of wastefulness and sloth. The artizan becomes weary of his trade-the operative impatient of his toil: the sources of wealth and prosperity are dried up, and the plundered hoards of avarice, and the rifled stores of provident benevolence, are soon exhausted. The means of supplying the wants of the countless multitude begin to fail, and their clamors assume a tone which warns their leader of approaching danger. The evil supplies its remedy. The mercenary voter affords the proper material for the mercenary soldier; and the habits of wastefulness and debauchery which disqualify him for every other occupation, do but fit him for that. Improvidence and sloth have made him feel the want of bread, and the paltry stipend of the soldier becomes an irresistible bribe. Happy they who are forward to secure it, and who, armed and organized, are equal to the task of curbing and chastising the petulant tempers of the multitude, their late associates! Then commences the long reign of military despotism-the empire of the sword. The duration of this is indefinite, and not liable to be determined by any change in the condition of society, produced by its own operation. Its tendencies are all to degrade and abase,