with intellectual, social, and political conditions. A Chinese cannot understand it as the Greek understood it; nor do men living under absolute governments, as Russia, know what it means to the people of the United States. A general discussion of the subject is not here called for, but two species of rights that are often confounded must be carefully discriminated.

The use of the common highways, the protection of person and property, the pursuit of whatever trade or calling one sees fit to follow, are civil rights. Participation in the government, as in voting and holding office, are political rights. The civil rights, and still more the political rights, enjoyed by men differ greatly in different countries. As a rule, the freer the government the larger the measure of rights possessed by the citizen or the subject. These two classes of rights are by no means accorded to men in the same country in equal measure. The citizen may enjoy full civil rights and have no political rights whatever; or he may enjoy full political rights while his civil rights are not well protected. That is, his rights of person and property may be protected, while he is denied all participation in the government; or he may participate freely in the government, while not enjoying civil protection. Civil and political rights are defined and protected by law in all well-ordered states.

31. Civil and Political Liberty.-Strictly speaking, civil liberty pertains to the enjoyment of civil rights; political liberty, to participation in politics or the affairs of government. Some writers blend them in one whole. Dr. Lieber says that "when the term civil liberty is used there is now always meant a high degree of mutually guaranteed protection against interference with interests and rights held dear and important by all classes of civilized men," and also "an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws as the best apparatus to secure that protection." 1 In other words, Dr. Lieber holds that political liberty is essential to civil liberty, and that practically the two kinds of rights cannot be separated.

32. Kinds of Constitutions.-Theoretical writers recognize two or more kinds of constitutions. Dr. Brownson calls one kind "Constitutions of the People," another kind “Constitutions of the Government." Judge Jameson calls them "Constitutions as objective facts" and "Constitutions as instruments of evidence." This distinction further illustrates the difference between society and government, the state and the political system. Constitutions "as they

1 Pp. 89.

ought to be" are ideal constructions, like Plato's Republic and More's Utopia.

33. The Constitution of the People.-Jameson calls this "its make-up as a political organism; that special adjustment of instrumentalities, powers, and functions, by which its form and operation are determined." This constitution is a part of the political character and life of the people. It is the constitution actually existing and working at any given time. It is never summed up in a document. It grows up with the state, and is not made or ordained. It changes as the people change.

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34. The Constitution of the Government.-Dr. Brownson defines this as "simply a law ordained by the nation or people, instituting and organizing their government." Jameson says it is the result of an attempt to represent in technical language some particular constitution existing as an objective fact." Commonly this secondary constitution is in general accord with the primary one, but it always varies from it more or less widely. The Constitution of the People of the United States says that the President and Vice-President are elected by the people voting by States; the Constitution of the Government says they are elected by electors appointed as the several State Legislatures may direct. Our caucus system is a part of the one, but not a part of the other.

35. Constitutional Governments.-Every nation has a constitu tion considered as an objective fact, or a constitution of the people. But only those governments are called constitutional that are insti tuted and organized by some rules or statutes of binding force called constitutions. These constitutions may, in whole or in part, be the immediate concessions or grants of a king, as Magna Charta was, but this is rarely the case unless they are sternly demanded by the state. The object of constitutions is to institute political power, and to define and limit its extent. Constitutions are of two kinds, written and unwritten.

36. Written Constitutions.-The main difference between such a constitution and an ordinary law is that a constitution is ordained by the state, or sovereign power, for the purpose of instituting the government, defining its powers and directing by whom they shall be exercised; while a law is enacted by the law-making power that the constitution has instituted, as a congress or a legislature. Such a constitution is also called an organic act and the fundamental law. It is therefore a much more significant and solemn act than a common statute. A written constitution may be composed of old materials, and will be so to a large extent if it is a good one; but it is

1 Chap. III.

always a definite act or transaction, an attempt to formulate the organic law. It is always a document, lex scripta.

37. Unwritten Constitutions.-These constitutions grow up gradually, springing out of the life of the state. They consist of customs, precedents, traditions, grants of rights by the executive authority, rules of proceeding by the legislature, and decisions by the courts of law. Such constitutions are never found in a formal document, and so are called unwritten, lex non scripta. They are sometimes called prescriptive, historical, and traditionary constitutions. The most celebrated constitution of this kind is that of England. According to this constitution, sovereignty resides, pro forma, in Parliament, which enacts such laws as it pleases, and may at any time change the constitution itself, even to the extent of abolishing the Crown. This constitution consists of documents and precedents which are found in books of law and history.

38. Advantages of the Two Kinds of Constitutions.-Each kind has its own points of advantage and disadvantage. Unwritten constitutions are more elastic, more rapidly changed, and they more nearly represent the Constitution of the people. Written constitutions are more defiuite, are less open to dispute, are more readily understood and followed. They are bulwarks against faction and violence, and against abuses of power. They are monuments from which we may measure the advance or recession of the body politic. An unwritten constitution of necessity lodges sovereignty in the government, or some branch of it, as the English Constitution does in Parliament; while a written constitution always assumes that there is a power above the government—the People, or the Nation-that makes and changes the constitution at will. The question, Which is better? must be answered with reference to the history and political character of the people directly interested in a particular case.

VII. MODES OF IMPROVING GOVERNMENT.

39. Evolution.-Some governments are more and some less imperfect, but all are capable of improvement. The common mode of improving them is through public opinion. Interested men agitate reforms in newspapers, books, pamphlets, sermons, speeches, and private conversation, until, at last, public sentiment declares itself satisfied with the existing state of affairs or compels a change. This is the civilized way of reforming government, and in free countries these processes are all the time going on. It is a slow but, under favorable circumstances, an effectual, mode of accomplishing the end.

40. Revolution.-The Declaration of Independence describes another mode of effecting political changes. "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [viz., the securing of

rights] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." This is called the right of revolution. It is an extreme and violent measure even when peaceful, and still more so when it is effected by war and bloodshed. Accordingly the Declaration says: "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new safeguards for their future security.”

PART I.

THE MAKING OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER I.

THE THIRTEEN ENGLISH COLONIES PLANTED.

REFERENCES.1

I. GENERAL HISTORIES.-Bancroft, History of the U. S. (author's final revision), Part I.; Hildreth, History of the U. S., Vol. I.; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. III.; Johnston, The United States. See also the same author's articles on the thirteen Colonies, by names, in Lalor's Cyclopædia of Political Science, etc.

II. SPECIAL HISTORIES.-Doyle, The English Colonies in America, I., The Puritan Colonies, II., Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas; Lodge, A Short History of the English Colonies in America; Fiske, The Beginnings of New England; Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, Chaps., VI., VII., and How to Study and Teach History, Chaps. XV.-XVII.; Thwaites, The Colonies (Epochs of American History). See also the volumes on Connecticut, New York, Maryland, and Virginia in the American Commonwealths series.

III. ON RIGHT OF DISCOVERY.-Phillimore, Commentaries upon International Law, Part III., Chap. XII.; Wheaton, Elements of International Law, Part II., Chap. IV.; Wharton, Digest of the International Law of the U. S., Chap. I., Sec. 2.

IV. COLONIAL CHARTERS AND PATENTS.-These are nearly all given by Poore, Federal and State Constitutions, and Colonial Charters, etc., and several of the principal ones by Preston, Documents Illustrative of American History.

The Right of Discovery.-Columbus and his successors made known to Europe the Continent of North

1 Titles of books once given will not ordinarily be repeated in these bibliographies, save when necessary to avoid confusion. A bibliographical index will be found at the close of the work.