Notwithstanding all this, which has been said in opposition to the
doctrine of individual sovereignty as the true principle of government,
it contains the germ of an ultimate truth, which will be realized when
the total of individuals forming the world’s community shall have become
so advanced from the present low conditions to those of wisdom and love,
as to make every individual involuntarily recognize the rights of every
other individual. In other words, individual sovereignty will be the
principle of government when that time shall come wherein there will be
no necessity for government, because the people shall have grown into
the condition of a universal brotherhood. It is this innate sense of
individual right which is present in the consciousness of every
individual who has grown to know he is an individual, which makes this
constant conflict between ultimation and approximation. It is the
expression, politically, of the same principle which, religiously
expressed, makes it possible for the consciousness of the individual to
contain an undefinable knowledge of a Great First Cause, and at the same
time to feel that he is an individual agent. In other words, it is the
old doctrine of free agency reproduced in the political world, which, if
it is but considered a single moment with an unprejudiced mind, it must
be seen that there is no such thing as free agency; for every individual
is dependent upon something, over which he has no control, every instant
of his whole life, which something even produces the capacity which
gives him the power to think he is free.
It will be seen, then, that the great general principles which govern
the entire universe, are recognized in the proposition that all people
are born free and equal, and entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness, which are inalienable rights; but it fails to be
comprehended that the inalienable rights of freedom are limited by the
other condition of equality, which makes every individual free within
the distinct sphere of his individuality, but not free within the sphere
of other individuals. He has the inalienable right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness, when it is not exercised at the expense of the
inalienable rights of others in the same direction. These are the
governing laws which the worlds obey, and which control the minutest
particles of matter. And these are the true “Principles of Government.”
It will be also seen that the forms by which the principles of our
government are administered are imperfect, and consequently that,
however much we may reverence the Constitution of the United States, it
requires remodeling to enable the true principles of government to find
expression through it. The inconsistencies, also, of the rights of
States, as represented by the common government, must also be removed.
The State is either the source of governmental power or it must proceed
from all the States, as combined in government. If the former, we are no
more to be respected as a Union than the numerous Italian and German
States were before the consolidation. The republic, under such
construction, amounts to nothing more or less than a union for offensive
and defensive purposes, _at the option_ of the several States, which is
as purely a governmental force as could well be imagined. The
inconsistency of this construction of the Constitution was fully shown
in No. III. of the “Limits and Sphere of Government,” and need not be
repeated here; the subject has been pursued here, that the utter folly,
inconsistency and impossibility of the recognition of individual rights,
where such rights conflict with the community as a whole, might be the
more palpably apparent. Having considered the source of the
imperfections which exist in the form of our government, what should
legitimately follow for consideration is, the remedy. In the first
place, the theory of States rights must be abandoned, and each State
must become a member of the Union by organizing under a common form, to
be prescribed by them all, or by the present required constitutional
majority of them all, to make an amendment to the Constitution valid.
The same rule should be applied as that which has come to be a
recognized necessity in States regarding incorporating companies. All
the States should be required to organize under a general State law,
which should be clearly and concisely set forth in the Constitution,
which should recognize the general government as the determining power,
and not that it exists by the sufferance of the States, but that the
States exist as organic bodies, because they have complied with the
requirements of the Constitution, which was necessary to constitute them
States. In conformity with such acquired power, States should prescribe
the means by which cities can become incorporated. In this way, unity of
purpose and harmony of interest can be secured from the individual up to
the total of individuals forming the nation.
Such a government would be a strong government indeed, but one in which
its composing members of States and the composing members of individuals
would have the utmost extent of freedom that the interests of the whole
would admit. If this is not the end to be gained by government, then
government is a simple farce, and unworthy of being allowed to exist
anywhere. From the earliest historic ages the world has constantly been
extending to individuals through its forms of government, more and wider
freedom and greater privileges and immunities. This process will
continue to spread, as the general people become more and better fitted
to be the recipients and the appreciators of such extensions to them.
The individual has more rights and privileges to-day in the world than
at any other previous time, but all individuals have not yet become such
perfect laws to themselves that no formulated law is required to
restrain them from the infraction of others’ present rights, privileges
and immunities. Until such time come, a strong central government is
required.
A strong central government does not necessarily mean anything
approaching a monarchy. But it does mean a republic which will have the
support of all its citizens as a central support, instead of each State
comprising the Union reserving to itself the right to differ from the
central power. In such a government, the majority of the people would,
at any time, have the right to elect new officers, as provided for, so
that the strong central power would not be in the individuals
administering the government, but in the organic law which constitutes
the several parts of the country a common government, which, while being
the strongest possible governmental form, it would, at the same time
guarantee the greatest possible freedom, equality and justice to its
people which would be compatible with the common interests and the
common good.
Lastly, such a central power of government is the only one to which
peoples not already within the government could be admitted without
endangering its existence. A new State desires to become associated with
the several States forming the present Union. Immediately she is
admitted, she has, under the present doctrine and practice, the right to
withdraw. She has been admitted by and with the consent of the required
majority of the States previously constituting the Union; therefore,
logically, she has not the right to withdraw without the same consent It
required this consent added to her free and self-expressed desire to
become a State; it should also require the same consent before she
should be allowed to withdraw from the Union.
Under a general rule for the admission of new States, and of allowing
addition to the present limits of the Union, all that would be required
would be for the people of a certain limit to adopt the requirements of
the Constitution, and present themselves to Congress for admission.
Aggregation, according to this rule, could always proceed without ever
endangering the safety of the general government, because a country once
having become a part of the Union would be under the mighty constraint
of the whole Union to properly and peacefully perform the functions of a
State in the Union. This condition can be well illustrated, by supposing
that there was a confederation of all the European powers to preserve
peace among themselves under certain defined agreements. If a single
power violated any of those agreements, or attempted to make war upon
its own account against another nation, a party to the agreement, all
the other contracting powers would be in honor bound to make the
interest of the nation against which proceedings were being had contrary
to the common agreement their own. War, under such conditions, would be
practically impossible. So would disunion, under the proposed system of
confederation.
The country which shall first adopt such a system will be the centre of
the future Universal Government of the world; and it is with this view
in mind that these suggestions are offered to the people of the United
States of America, which country is, by the common order of the
universe, appointed to be that centre, to the end that they shall see
the necessity of immediate action to perfect the organic laws of the
country.