The American Republic (1865) on Informer Archiveshttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/Recent content byHugo -- gohugo.ioen-USFri, 12 Aug 2022 07:45:43 -0700The American Republichttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/contents/Fri, 12 Aug 2022 13:28:04 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/contents/Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny
by
O. A. BROWNSON, LL. D. NEW YORK: P. O'SHEA, 104 BLEECKER STREET, 1866. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by P. O’SHEA, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
TO THE HON. GEORGE BANCROFT, THE ERUDITE, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND ELOQUENT Historian of the United States, THIS FEEBLE ATTEMPT TO SET FORTH THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT, AND TO EXPLAIN AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, IN MEMORY OF OLD FRIENDSHIP, AND AS A SLIGHT HOMAGE TO GENIUS, ABILITY, PATRIOTISM, PRIVATE WORTH, AND PUBLIC SERVICE, BY THE AUTHOR.The American Republic - Prefacehttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/preface/Thu, 30 Sep 2021 07:45:43 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/preface/Preface
In the volume which, with much diffidence, is here offered to the public, I have given, as far as I have considered it worth giving, my whole thought in a connected form on the nature, necessity, extent, authority, origin, ground, and constitution of government, and the unity, nationality, constitution, tendencies, and destiny of the American Republic. Many of the points treated have been from time to time discussed or touched upon, and many of the views have been presented, in my previous writings; but this work is newly and independently written from beginning to end, and is as complete on the topics treated as I have been able to make it.Chapter I - Introductionhttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-i/Fri, 12 Aug 2022 07:45:43 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-i/Chapter I
Introduction
THE ancients summed up the whole of human wisdom in the maxim, Know Thyself, and certainly there is for an individual no more important as there is no more difficult knowledge, than knowledge of himself, whence ho conies, whither he goes, what be is, what he is for, what he can do, what he ought to do, and what are his means of doing it.
Nations are only individuals on a larger scale.Chapter II - Governmenthttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-ii/Fri, 12 Aug 2022 07:45:43 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-ii/Chapter II
Government
MAN is a dependent being, and neither does nor can suffice for himself. He lives not in himself, but lives and moves and has his being in God. He exists, develops, and fulfils his existence only by communion with God, through which he participates of the divine being and life. He communes with God through the divine creative act and the Incarnation of the Word, through his kind, and through the material world.Chapter III - Origin of Governmenthttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-iii/Fri, 12 Aug 2022 07:45:43 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-iii/Chapter III
Origin of Government
GOVERNMENT is both a fact and a right. Its origin as a fact, is simply a question of history; its origin as a right or authority to govern, is a question of ethics. Whether a certain territory and its population are a sovereign state or nation, or not – whether the actual ruler of a country is its rightful ruler, or not – is to be determined by the historical facts in the case; but whence the government derives its right to govern, is a question that can be solved only by philosophy, or, philosophy failing, only by revelation.Chapter IV - Origin of Government - Continuedhttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-iv/Fri, 12 Aug 2022 07:45:43 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-iv/Chapter IV
Origin of Government - Continued
II. REJECTING the patriarchal theory as untenable, and shrinking from asserting the divine origin of government, lest they should favor theocracy, and place secular society under the control of the clergy, and thus disfranchise the laity, modern political writers have sought to render government purely human, and maintain that its origin is conventional, and that it is founded in compact or agreement. Their theory originated in the seventeenth century, and was predominant in the last century and the first third of the present.Chapter V - Origin of Government - Continuedhttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-v/Fri, 12 Aug 2022 07:45:43 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-v/Chapter V
Origin of Government - Continued
III. THE tendency of the last century was to individualism; that of the present is to socialism. The theory of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Jefferson, though not formally abandoned, and still held by many, has latterly been much modified, if not wholly transformed. Sovereignty, it is now maintained, is inherent in the people; not individually, indeed, but collectively, or the people as society. The constitution is held not to be simply a compact or agreement entered into by the people as individuals creating civil society and government, but a law ordained by the sovereign people, prescribing the constitution of the state and defining its rights and powers.Chapter VI - Origin of Government - Concludedhttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-vi/Fri, 12 Aug 2022 07:45:43 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-vi/Chapter VI
Origin of Government - Concluded
VI. THE theory which derives the right of government from the direct and express appointment of God is sometimes modified so as to mean that civil authority is derived from God through the spiritual authority. The patriarch combined in his person both authorities, and was in his own household both priest and king, and so originally was in his own tribe the chief, and in his kingdom the king.Chapter VII - Constitution of Governmenthttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-vii/Fri, 12 Aug 2022 07:45:43 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-vii/Chapter VII
Constitution of Government
THE Constitution is twofold: the constitution of the state or nation, and the constitution of the government. The constitution of the government is, or is held to be, the work of the nation itself; the constitution of the state, or the people of the state, is, in its origin at least, providential, given by God himself, operating through historical events or natural causes, The one originates in law, the other in historical fact.Chapter VIII - Constitution of Government - Continuedhttps://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-viii/Fri, 12 Aug 2022 07:45:43 -0700https://www.informerarchives.com/resources/the-american-republic/chapter-viii/Chapter VIII
Constitution of Government - Continued
THOUGH the constitution of the people is congenital, like the constitution of an individual, and cannot be radically changed without the destruction of the state, it must not be supposed that it is wholly withdrawn from the action of the reason and free-will of the nation, nor from that of individual statesmen. All created things are subject to the law of development, and may be developed either in a good sense or in a bad; that is, may be either completed or corrupted.