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CIVIL GOVERNMENTIN THE UNITED STATESCONSIDERED WITH SOME REFERENCETO ITS ORIGINS
BY
JOHN FISKE
[Greek: Aissomai pai Zaevos Heleutheroiu, Imeran eurnsthene amphipolei, Soteira Tucha tiv gar en ponto kubernontai thoai naes, en cherso te laipsaeroi polemoi kagorai boulaphoroi.]
PINDAR, Olymp. xii.
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!…
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee,—are all with thee!
LONGFELLOW.
1890
BY JOHN FISKE.
Dedication
This little book is dedicated, with the author's best wishes andsincere regard, to the many hundreds of young friends whom he hasfound it so pleasant to meet in years past, and also to those whom helooks forward to meeting in years to come, in studies and readingsupon the rich and fruitful history of our beloved country.
PREFACE.
Some time ago, my friends, Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., requestedme to write a small book on Civil Government in the United States,which might be useful as a text-book, and at the same time serviceableand suggestive to the general reader interested in American history.In preparing the book certain points have been kept especially inview, and deserve some mention here.
It seemed desirable to adopt a historical method of exposition, notsimply describing our political institutions in their present shape,but pointing out their origin, indicating some of the processesthrough which they have acquired that present shape, and thus keepingbefore the student's mind the fact that government is perpetuallyundergoing modifications in adapting itself to new conditions.Inasmuch as such gradual changes in government do not make themselves,but are made by men—and made either for better or for worse—it isobvious that the history of political institutions has serious lessonsto teach us. The student should as soon as possible come to understandthat every institution is the outgrowth of experiences. One probablygets but little benefit from abstract definitions and axiomsconcerning the rights of men and the nature of civil society, such aswe often find at the beginning of books on government. Metaphysicalgeneralizations are well enough in their place, but to start with suchthings—as the French philosophers of the eighteenth century were fondof doing—is to get the cart before the horse. It is better to haveour story first, and thus find out what government in its concretereality has been, and is. Then we may finish up with the metaphysics,or do as I have done—leave it for somebody else.
I was advised to avoid the extremely systematic, intrusivelysymmetrical, style of exposition, which is sometimes deemedindispensable in a book of this sort. It was thought that studentswould be more likely to become interested in the subject if it weretreated in the same informal manner into which one naturally falls ingiving lectures to young people. I have endeavoured to bear this inmind without sacrificing that lucidity in the arrangement of topicswhich is always the supreme consideration. For many years I have beenin the habit of lecturing on history to college students in differentparts