GOD IN CREATION, IN HISTORY, AND IN GOVERNMENT—A PHILOSOPHICAL PREFACE
TO A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE.
[The head of the firm of Woodhull, Claflin & Co., Commodore Vanderbilt’s
financial _proteges_—the famous brokers of Broad street—has undertaken
the difficult task of correcting popular errors in the science of
government, and has prepared a paper on the subject, which, as the lady
expects to be too busy to deliver for some time to come, we publish it
_in extenso_. Whether her conclusions will agree with her premises or
not, the document will be found exceedingly interesting, as showing the
quality of the female mind against which the money changers of Wall
street will have to contend in business:]
As far back into the past as dim historic lights enable us to see, and
still much farther, even behind the appearance of man upon the face of
this planet, the existence of government can be plainly traced. Wherever
two or more of any species of animals—not to descend lower and including
man—are or have been, something simulating to what is in our day
denominated government exists or existed; and, whether it is or was over
a greater or less community, it is or was possessed of certain
characterizing elements, from and by which a clear insight into the
composition of the community can be obtained by those who will analyze
the elements somewhat philosophically; that is to say governments are
truthful reflections of the governed when considered as a whole, and all
changes or modifications that occur therein, result from growth of the
governed.
No just nor advantageous deductions from any subject or fact which is
worthy of a position in the world’s history, and which is capable of
permanently maintaining such a position, can be arrived at, except
through a complete philosophical analysis of all the elements entering
into its composition. All facts as well as all chemical compounds are
made up of elementary principles brought into intimate productive
relations by some general power, operating by some general law of
combination. By such an analysis the composition of such subjects and
facts as are analyzed are not only determined, but the relations which
they sustain to all other subjects and facts are also demonstrated, and
thus a general law of relativity is found which makes the whole round of
creation one in purpose and effect.
It is not proposed in the present article to prosecute an exhaustive
analysis of government as it is or as it has been, but rather to observe
the chain of progression which has been evolved, and to endeavor to
determine whether, link by link, it does not form one harmonious whole,
from the present aspect of which its culmination may be caught sight of;
and whether that culmination will not be found a complete circle,
containing within its immense area all that has conspired and assisted
in its completion, and which will be entitled to positions in such a
community of interests by virtue of having thus conspired and assisted
in its formation.
Neither is it proposed to extend the limits of this inquiry beyond the
consideration of human government, except in so far as analogies may be
sought to enforce the application of general laws and to assist by such
application in the solution of such questions as may not be entirely
apparent from the evidences contained specifically within the said
limits. Philosophically considered, however, the objects sought could as
well be obtained from any other department of government; for, while a
general law underlies all forms and systems of human government and
controls all its modifications, the self-same law underlies and controls
all other forms and systems of government, from which human government
sprung and upon which it rests as a primary basis.
It is believed that there is sufficient mental development and
comprehension contained in the philosophic minds of this latter part of
the nineteenth century to gather into form the evidence that has been
and is being presented, in the evolution and dissolution of government,
and grasp its signification, so that in its application to existing
things, permanent instead of politic modifications in governmental
affairs may be inaugurated. Governed by any other than such a broad
standard, changes and modifications in present systems and forms are
made simply to meet the exigencies of the times, and with no view to
place government upon a basis which should never need modification, and
which should meet all exigencies of all times. The reasons why such
government has not hitherto been inaugurated or attempted, are, because
in no country has the general mind as yet become sufficiently broad and
comprehensive to discover that great general laws underlie the universe
and govern all its manifestations, applying to each and every department
thereof with perfect uniformity. It is not my province to discuss what
these great general laws and principles are. I assume that they do
exist, and it is my office to predicate what the future of government
must be when it shall have its basis in such laws and principles, and to
judge whether what has been, and what is, may be considered as gradual
approaches from the most simple and homogeneous forms in which the
interest of all were very indefinite, either individually or
collectively, toward that wherein the interests of all, while becoming
more distinct individually, shall be merged in the general interests of
the whole and become identical therewith.
Mr. Maine says, in his “Ancient Law,” that “society in ancient times was
not what it is assumed to be at present—a collection of individuals. In
fact, and in view of the men that composed it, it was an aggregation of
families. The contrast may be best and most forcibly expressed by saying
that the unit of an ancient society was the family; of a modern society,
the individual.”
In speaking of ancient society, Mr. Fiske says: “Family government
excluded not only individual independence but also State supremacy; and
that vestiges of a time when there were no aggregates of men more
extensive than the family may be found in every part of the world, when
social organization was but one step removed from absolute and ferocious
anarchy;” and this he defines as a social aggregate of the first order;
the coalescence of families into civic communities an aggregate of the
second order; the coalescence of civic and tribual communities into the
nation an aggregate of the third order. The coalescence of nations would
then describe an aggregate of the fourth order. Under these four orders
all the forms of government which can ever exist in the world must be
classified.
As low a form of government as can be conceived as existing next above
that of the family, worthy to be called human government, still exists
among the barbarians inhabiting some portions of Central Africa, some of
the East India Islands, and perhaps some of the South Sea Islands. These
people unite in bands or tribes, and rove about seeking the means of
subsistence and endeavoring to conquer other tribes. Some have central
points of rendezvous, where the rudest habitations are constructed, in
which the women and children remain during the absence of the men. The
women almost universally are considered very much in the light of slaves
by all these nomadic tribes, and as only fit to minister to their
passions and to perform their drudgery. Their language is as rude as
their habits, consisting of little more than a comparatively few
spasmodically uttered harsh sounds. Written language they have none,
excepting perhaps some images or rude figures symbolizing some special
event they in this way attempt to commemorate, and which may be
considered as the foundation of it for the tribes using them as they
were the primary foundation of all written language.
One notable feature is universally observable among all these
representatives of primitive government—they all recognize the necessity
of a leader under some of the many forms of control exercised by the one
over the many, and he is generally one who has exhibited some particular
prowess in battle, the capacity to perform which he is supposed to be
endowed with by some unknown power, and which renders him superior to
all others, and best capable of ruling and protecting those who thus
recognize him, and who obey him in every particular, even to sacrificing
their lives. Such may be considered an outline of our conceptions of the
most primitive form of government of the present day; and the fact that
such still exists has a marked bearing upon the subject of general
government, when it is remembered that the time was when no higher form
existed on the face of the earth.
The law of evolution and that of dissolution being a universal deduction
from the philosophic ultimatum _that force persists_, they apply to all
things wherein force is exhibited; consequently human government must be
the objective result of the persistence of force exhibited among the
people of the earth, and at the same time the subject of all
modifications that grow out of its transformations and equivalent
relations. In whatever light, then, human government is viewed, these
philosophic laws should never be lost sight of nor disregarded; but the
causes of all the rises and falls, transformations, modifications and
amalgamations, should be sought by the application of those laws to the
objective points under consideration.
The question now naturally arises, Can human government, then be
analyzed, and the facts it presents be found to correspond to the
deductions of philosophic law?
It has been remarked that the simplest combinations of force among human
beings, representing government which existed when none higher had been
attained, was still represented on the earth by certain of its
inhabitants. Beginning with this as the basis of the superstructure of
human government, can there be traced a gradual scale of progress from
it to the government of this country, in which scale each nation, tribe
and tongue will find its appropriate place, which, unoccupied, would
render the scale imperfect, as a chain would be imperfect were one of
its central links missing? and would an analysis of each of these
governments develop the fact that each successive one in the progressive
scale would represent some new application of the principle of liberty,
some more extended idea of equality, or some better formula of justice
than the preceding had, which application, idea or formula entitles it
to rank superior thereto, and also determines its position in the scale?
Of all systems and forms of government that came and passed away during
the long lapse of ages, from the time the most primitive alone existed
on the earth to the time wherein those flourished that have left records
of their existence, we can know nothing except what may be gathered from
philosophic deduction unsupported by any actual record of facts
concerning them. It is, however, philosophically certain that very many
such intermediate governments did exist, variously modified and
advancing from the primitive forms. Possessing, as we may justly infer,
but little capability for duration, their integration was rapidly
succeeded by disintegration; being exposed to numerous and different
external influences, rapid and successive changes were inevitable,
because they were possessed of but little individuality and consequently
but little capacity for resisting external influences. They were bound
together by none of the higher laws of association, but were led by
transient ephemeral contingencies, combining at times together, to soon
divide and subdivide only to again form new and equally temporary
amalgamations. Thus constantly organizing and dissolving, the long
interval alluded to was occupied by primitive inhabitants in their march
from the purely homogeneous toward the individualized times wherein
civilization left records of itself.
While no special inquiries into the correctness of the formulas laid
down at various times by various philosophers, which seek to include and
cover all the phenomena of the universe, will be made, those of the most
eminent may with propriety be stated; indeed, if it be attempted to show
that history obeys a fixed law of evolution, the law that it is presumed
to obey must be given, that it may be seen whether the deductions
arrived at are included within the limits of the formula. If it should
not so turn out, then either the deduction must be illegitimate, the
formula imperfect or impossible, or the fact made apparent, that, while
all the other sciences, as biology, psychology and their various
divisions, are known to conform to certain well determined laws of
causation, sociology, in which all history and government find their
basis, conforms to no law, but is the product of the merest chance.
Until within the present century it was not claimed by any of the
various philosophers who had flourished that there was such a science as
sociology; or, if so claimed by any far-seeing mind, the attempt to
demonstrate or formulate it was not made until the time of Comte, who,
about the year 1830, did attempt it, and he may be justly styled the
father of the present system of formulated science. Though his system is
now shown to contain many imperfections and omissions, it is
nevertheless certain, that but for it, the improvements since made would
not have been possible to the present degree attained, though those who
have made them may repudiate the idea, and scorn to acknowledge that
they have built upon Comte.
Gathering from his profuse writings upon this point his earlier and most
continuous opinions, the following are the terms in which they can be
the most simply expressed: Social progression is a gradual change from
rudimentary, homogeneous and anthropomorphic conditions to civilization,
heterogeneity and to definite conceptions of the external world; and at
the same time from nomadic characteristics, with aggressive purposes, to
inhabitative propensities and individual industrial pursuits.
A number of philosophers, who have written since the days of Comte, have
from time to time presented formulas which at best can only be
considered as modifications of his, and it may confidently be asserted
that no real addition was acquired until the Spencerian was made, which,
while it included Comte’s, was more general and comprehensive, and at
the same time more definite and special. This seeming anomaly was made
possible by his having discovered the law of evolution, and by having
exhaustively demonstrated that all mental action—emotional as well as
intellectual—was included in it. It is as follows: Evolution is an
integration of matter and a concomitant dissipation of motion, during
which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a
definite, coherent heterogeneity, and during which the retained motion
undergoes a partial transformation. This general formula includes all
evolution, organic and inorganic, and interprets not only the genesis of
the sidereal and solar systems and of the earth, but also of life upon
the earth, and has become the law of all social, moral and intellectual
change. He afterward found it necessary to make a supplement especially
applicable to organic life, in such terms as should not include the
inorganic. It was as follows: “Life—and intelligence being the highest
manifestations of life—consists in the continuous establishment of
relations within the organism, in correspondence with relations existing
within the environment or the surroundings.”
To this exhaustive statement a late generalization and specialization
has been made by Mr. Fiske, especially applicable to social evolution,
as follows: The progress of society is a continuous establishment of
psychical relations within the community, in conformity to physical and
psychical relations arising within the environment, during which, both
the community and the environment pass from a state of incoherent
homogeneity to a state of coherent heterogeneity, and during which the
constitutional units of the community become ever more distinctly
individuated.
Having now arrived at that point where history must furnish the facts
upon which the subject rests, it may be well to comprehensively
recapitulate a perhaps somewhat too long introduction. It was seen that
all over the face of the earth where human life was represented,
government exists, and that this government was representative of one or
another of the three orders of aggregates of individuals—the family, the
tribal, or the nations, and that an aggregate of nations would add the
fourth order. It was also seen that the evolution of government was the
objective result of the persistence of force among its component parts.
Fixing the basis of government in this philosophic fact, it was
necessary to examine the history of government to see if in its
evolution it had conformed to this law, according to present accepted
formulas; and if so found to have done, to extend the same into the
future, to ascertain if possible what the future would be. Thus by a
present understanding of the law and its tendencies, all modifications
and changes made in present systems and forms might be so made in
harmony therewith, and not with a simple view to meet the present
exigencies, but with an understanding that would meet all exigencies of
all time, which alone is perfect legislation.