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each other. This natural appetite or propensity for asso. ciation, and the pleasure which is derived from it, are com mon to all mankind. Without society, man would be desti. tute of rational enjoyment.

§ 4. Man is also fitted, by nature, for civil government and laws. He is capable of discerning his own wants and the wants of others. He has the faculty of acquiring a knowledge or perception of what is morally right or wrong, and a sense of obligation to do what is right, and to forbear to do what is wrong. His reason enables him to under. stand the meaning of laws, and to discover what laws are necessary to regulate human actions.

§ 5. Some have supposed that the savage or uncivilized state is capable of affording the highest degree of happiness; that the social improvements and civil government encou rage vice, and cause the evils which exist in society. It is believed by others, that laws are necessary only to restrain the evil passions of men, and to prevent the miseries which they are prone to inflict upon each other: consequently, were all men virtuous and purely benevolent, laws for their government would be wholly unnecessary. If, however, it be admitted, that mankind are by nature formed for society, it is reasonable to conclude, that laws of some kind are necessary to regulate their social actions, and to secure to them the enjoyment of their natural rights, how virtuous soever they may be.

§ 6. Whatever may be true in respect to these several opinions, it must be admitted, that man is imperfect and fallible; and, being capable of vicious as well as virtuous actions, he is liable to deviate from the rule of rectitude, and to infringe the rights of others. So that, whether his transgression be the result of his ignorance, of the weakness of his judgment, or of the wickedness of his disposition, laws are necessary to prevent him from disturbing the happiness, or from injuring the person or property, of his neighbor.

§ 7. Hence, mankind have, from an early period, formed themselves into political communities, or bodies politic. A

an's qualifications by nature for society? § 4. Wherein consists his pacity for civil government? § 5. What different opinions prevail oncerning the effect of the social improvements and of laws upon mankind? 6. Why are laws necessary? § 7. How are mankind

community is a society of people living under the same laws and regulations, and having common rights and privileges: as a commonwealth, state, or nation. A body politic, or corporation, means a number of persons formed or incorpo rated into one body, with the power of acting under one name. The word, corporation, is derived from the Latin, corpus, signifying body. A corporation has a perpetual succession. When the persons which constitute a corporation have passed off, and their places been taken by others, the corporation still exists. Every state, county, or town, as well as every bank or railroad company, authorized by law to act as a single person, is a corporation.

CHER II.

Human Rights.-Natural, Civil, Political, and Religious Rights and Liberty.

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§ 8. GOVERNMENT is founded in the rights of man. secure the free enjoyment of these rights is the proper object of civil institutions. Right, in the sense in which it is here used, means the just claim, ownership, or lawful title which a person has to any thing. Thus, a man has a right to the money or other property which he has earned by his. labor, because he may dispose of it as he chooses. He has a right to his own body and mind: he may act and think as he will; provided, however, that he does not injure others; for all men have the same rights; and no person has the right to disturb another in the peaceable enjoyment of his natural rights.

9. The object and origin of good government are correctly stated in the American Declaration of Independence; which declares, “that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life,

associated for the purposes of government? Define communities and bodies politic.

§ 8. What is the meaning of right? 9. What is the object of good

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and that, when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a 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 happi

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§ 10. The rights of mankind are variously denominated : first, natural rights; secondly, political rights; and thirdly, civil rights. Natural rights are those which are founded in the laws of our nature; and are said to consist in the right of personal liberty, or the right to be free in our persons or bodies, and to use them as we think fit; in the right of personal security, which is the right to be protected against injury to our bodies or good name; and in the right of property, the right to enjoy and dispose of whatsoever belongs to us, as we think proper. These rights are also called unalienable, as they cannot be alienated, or justly taken from us. They may, however, be forfeited by crime. A man may be deprived of his liberty, to prevent his injuring others; and he may be justly fined or imprisoned for crimes committed against the good and wholesome laws of the community.

§ 11. Political rights are defined to be the rights and powers retained by the people in the constitution or funda. mental law of the state. The right of electing or appointing the officers of the government, and the power of altering or amending the constitution, are rights conferred by the constitution, and are therefore called political rights. The distinction between political and civil rights is not made by all political writers. There is, however, an obvious distinction, which will be made more clearly to appear from the definition given, in another place, of the political and civil powers of government. (§ 41-47.)

§ 12. Civil rights are those which are secured to citizens

government? § 10. How are the various classes of human rights denominated? What are natural rights? § 11. What are potical rights? 12. What are civil rights? What is meant by the tivi!

by the civil compact. By civil compact is meant the agree. ment or contract, by the terms of which the members of a community are governed. The rights of personal liberty, personal security, and of private property, though denominated natural rights because they originate in the laws of social nature, are, when we speak of them as being guarantied by civil laws, properly called civil rights.

§ 13. Liberty, in a general sense, is freedom from restraint, and is applicable to the body, will, or mind. It consists in the free exercise and enjoyment of one's rights; or in being free to act and think as he pleases. There is this difference between right and liberty: Right respects the claim or title which a person has to a thing; liberty, the free use and enjoyment of that right. A man's liberty may be destroyed; but his right to freedom will still remain. His property may be wrested from him; but his right to the same will not thereby be lost.

§ 14. Natural liberty consists in being free to act without constraint, except that which is imposed by the laws of social nature: or, moral or natural liberty is the permission which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property in the manner they shall judge most consonant to their own happiness; on condition that they act according to the laws of nature; that they do not abuse this liberty to the injury of other men; and that they practise towards others those moral duties which these laws enjoin.

§ 15. It is a common sentiment, that mankind, in a state of civil society, do not enjoy natural liberty to its full extent. They imagine it to be that liberty which gives rein to the wicked passions of men, and leaves them free to pursue their own interest and happiness, to the prejudice of other men. Hence, it is maintained, that, on entering into civil society, man gives up a portion of his natural liberty, and of his natural rights. But the correctness of this sentiment does not clearly appear. If man be, by the laws of his nature, constituted a moral and social being, he can have no natural right to injure himself or others. Natural liberty accords with the principles of justice, which require every

compact? §13. What is liberty? §14. Wherein does natural liberty consist? 15. Does natural liberty imply the right of man to injure

man to love his neighbor as himself, and to seek the happiness of every other member of society as carefully as he seeks his own.

§ 16. Civil liberty is the liberty of men, in a state of society, to exercise and enjoy civil rights-rights guarantied by civil institutions. It is the liberty which a man enjoys, as a member of society, restrained by laws so far only as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage of the public. Civil liberty can exist in perfection only under laws which secure, in the highest degree possible, the welfare and happiness of the whole community.

17. Political liberty is sometimes improperly spoken of as synonymous with civil liberty. But, though often confounded, these terms are distinct in their meaning. Political liberty denotes the free exercise and enjoyment of political rights and powers reserved to the people by the fundamental laws, the constitution of the state. It is by this liberty that the civil and religious liberties of the citizens of a nation or state are secured to them.

§ 18. Among the most important rights of mankind, is the right of opinion. This is a natural right; and, in all free governments, is secured by the civil and political laws. Hence, it is also called a civil and political right. It is the right which a man has to express and to publish his religious opinions, and his opinions on all subjects relating to the government. In exercising this right, however, he may not violate the rights of others, or disturb the good order of society. The right of a person to act agreeably to his religious opinion, is called the right of conscience; and his freedom to exercise and enjoy this right, is denominated religious liberty. This liberty, called also the liberty of conscience, is defined to be "the liberty which a man has of discussing and maintaining his religious opinions, and of worshiping God in that way and manner which he believes in his conscience to be most acceptable to his Maker.' The liberty of speech and of the press, and the liberty of conscience, are duly guarantied to the people of the United States.

his fellow man? § 16. What is civil liberty? § 17. What is political liberty? 18. What is understood by the right of opinion? What particular rights does it include? What is religious liberty?

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