cularly the latter, are liberally used in this work, and in some instances, perhaps, applied out of the range of common usage, it may be proper to explain, not, as we should hope, that it is necessary to satisfy or assist the intelligent reader, but to prevent any perversions of the author's meaning. Policy, as is well known, may have a commendable meaning, or the opposite; it may be an attribute of the worst, or of the best minds; it may characterize the operations of a good, or of a bad cause; it may be a selfish rule only, or it may be used within the bounds of fairness.

The term politics, as we need not say, comprehends the principles and tactics of the sciences, and is applicable to any system of operations in state, in any association whatever, in plans of business, and in individual schemes. In common use, however, it applies to affairs of state. The term will be found in these pages in a more elevated and philosophical sphere, irrespective of common usage.

The term political is in frequent use, extending to all the varieties and to the widest range of its significations, easily determined, however, as we trust, by its connexions in particular instances. We have found it convenient to use this licence, in order to reach and sustain the philosophy of the subjects to which it is applied, trusting that it will rather assist than embarrass discrimination, notwithstanding we have feared the reader would sometimes pause to consider the propriety of the application.

On the whole, however, it is presumed his assent will be gained, and that he will feel himself introduced, if not to a field of thought in some respects new, yet intelligible, and, it is hoped, in a measure satisfactory.

POLITICAL RIGHTS is a phrase of considerable consequence in this work, and may claim a particular explanation. A political right may be a moral wrong, and yet it may claim our respect; not for itself, but for the place which it occupies in the social edifice. It cannot be treated as we would treat it apart from such relations. We cannot lay violent hands upon it, to tear it from its place, lest we injure or pull down the building of which it is a part; but the removal of it must be a careful and prudent work.

Political rights are properly powers and privileges awarded to one community by the consent or sanction of another, or of others; by the right of usage, corresponding with the right of property vested by possession; and these rights may descend to individuals, still leaving the character of political, in consideration of the mode by which, and the channel through which, they have been acquired. Still they may be moral usages, or they may not be. And although they are in some instances of the former character, it may be convenient and best for society that they should be tolerated till a safe remedy can be applied. It is expedient that society in its structure should be

regarded as sacred, and not be treated with violence, though in some things it may be wrong. Law is law, till it can be regularly, and, if possible, quietly annulled. Hence the technical phrase— political rights-rights conventional, and established in the relations of communities to each other, or by their own internal regulations..

CHAPTER II.

THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN

SOCIETY.

THE political organization of American society cannot receive a name descriptive of itself. It was not formed by grant from a superior power, but by delegation and composition from the popular mass. The process was that of consolidation; yet it is not a consolidated government, in the usual and technical sense of the term, except in certain specific and limited degrees. The first and smallest civil division, with incorporated privileges and political powers, is that of townships; in some of the states, counties. Here is the most limited action of American republicanism, and the basis of republican empire, as it exists in America. Here is its germ, its cradle, its school. Within these limits the American is perfectly at home, and by action here qualifies himself for a more extended sphere. Here he gets the idea of political rights and social privileges. The townships-or, including those States where counties are the smallest civil divisions, the townships and counties--are the primal political unities, and so many integral parts of the common

wealth. From these sources spring up all the powers of the state. We are not at this moment speaking of the composition of the republic, as a whole, but of the States into which it is divided. The legislative assembly of a State, being composed of a representation from the primal sources, as another and grand political unity, extends its jurisdiction over all these integral portions for general and state purposes, guaranteeing the rights of the townships and counties, and securing to them other and higher privileges, in consideration of which, these original powers consent to share in the burdens of the commonwealth. All the acts of the State are the acts of their representatives; and the State jurisdiction is mediately their own creation. All the political power of the state, if we inquire into its history, resolves itself into these sources, and is composed of these original elements; so composed, that the authority which delegates always maintains a control over the power delegated.

In consequence of the powers delegated by the several States which compose the American Union, for the formation of a general government, the action of the States respectively is not visible to the world; and yet it is to be observed that these commonwealths constitute the basis, the body, and, comprehensively, the power, of the republic. Politically, and in regard to the rest of the world, they appear to lie in silent grandeur and in deep repose. They have no action that is apparent be