the propinquity of habitation and intercourse of employment, the paffions and counfels of a party can be circulated with ease and rapidity. It is by these means, and in such situations, that the minds of men are fo affected and prepared, that the most dreadful uproars often arife from the flighteft provocations. When the train is laid, a spark will produce the explosion. CHAP. CHAP. III. THE DUTY OF SUBMISSION TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT EXPLAINED. TH HE fubject of this chapter is fufficiently dif tinguished from the fubject of the last, as the motives which actually produce civil obedience, may be, and often are, very different from the reafons which make that obedience a duty. Ttingulled from the In order to prove civil obedience to be a moral duty, and an obligation upon the confcience, it hath been usual with many political writers, at the head of whom we find the venerable name of Locke, to state a compact between the citizen and the state, as the ground and caufe of the relation between them; which compact binding the parties for the fame general reason that private contracts do, refolves the duty of fubmiffion to civil government into the universal obligation of fidelity in the performance of promifes. This compact is two-fold; First, An express compact by the primitive founders of the state, who are supposed to have convened for the declared purpose of fettling the terms of their political union, and a future conftitution of government. The whole body is fuppofed, in the first place, to have unanimously confented, to be bound by the refolutions of the majority; that majority, in the next place, to have fixed certain fundamental regulations; and then to have constituted, either in one perfon, or in an affembly (the rule of fucceffion or appointment being at the fame time determined) a standing legislature, to whom, under thefe pre established restrictions, the government f the flate was thenceforward committed, and whofe laws the feveral members of the convention were, by their firft undertaking, thus personally engaged to obey. This tranfaction is fometimes called the focial compact, and thefe fuppofed original regulations compoie what are meant by the conftitution, the fundamental laws of the conftitution; and form ca one fide, the inherent indefeasible prerogative of the crown; and on the other, the unalienable birthright of the fubject. Secondly, A tacit or implied compact, by a!! fucceeding members of the ftate, who, by accepting its protection, confent to be bound by its laws; in like manner as whoever voluntarily enters into a private fociety, is understood, without any other or more explicit ftipulation, to promife a conformity with the rules, and obedience to the government of that fociety, as the known conditions, upon which he is admitted to a participation of its privileges. This account of the fubject, although fpecious, and patronized by names the most refpeétable, ap pears to labour under the following objections; that it is founded upon a fuppofition falle in fact; and leading to dangerous conclufions. No focial compact, fimilar to what is here defcrib ed, was ever made or entered into in reality; mo fuch original convention of the people was ever ac tually held, or in any country could be held, antecedent to the existence of civil government in that country. It is to fuppofe it pofiible to call favages out of caves and delerts, to deliberate and vote upon topics, which the experience, and ftudies, and refinements of civil life alone fuggeft. Therefore no government in the univerfe began from this orig al Some Some imitation of a focial compact may have taken place at a Revolution. The prefent age has been witness to a tranfaction, which bears the nearest refemblance to this political idea, of any of which history has preserved the account or memory. I refer to the establishment of the united states of NorthAmerica. We faw the people affembled to elect deputies, for the avowed purpose of framing the conftitution of a new empire. We faw this deputation of the people deliberating and refolving upon a form of government, erecting a permanent legiflature, diftributing the functions of fovereignty, ef tablishing and promulgating a code of fundamental ordinances, which were to be confidered by fucceeding generations, not merely as laws and acts of the ftate, but as the very terms and conditions of the confederation; as binding not only upon the fubjects and magiftrates of the ftate, but as limitations of power, which were to control and regulate the future legislature. Yet even here much was prefuppofed. In fettling the conftitution many important parts were prefumed to be already fettled. The qualifications of the conftituents who were admitted to vote in the election of members of congrefs, as well as the mode of electing the reprefentatives, were taken from the old forms of government. That was wanting from which every focial union fhould fet off, and which alone makes the refolutions of the society the act of the individual, the unconstrained confent of all to be bound by the decifion of the majority; and yet, without this previous confent, the revolt, and the regulations which followed it, were compulfory upon diffentients. But the original compact, we are told, is not proposed as a fact, but as a fiction, which furnishes a commodious explication of the mutual rights and duties of fovereigns and fubjects. In answer to this representation of the matter we obferve, that the original original compact, if it be not a fact, is nothing; can confer no actual authority upon laws or magiftrates, nor afford any foundation to rights, which are fuppofed to be real and exifting. But the truth is, that in the books, and in the apprehenfion of thofe who deduce our civil rights and obligations a pactis, the original convention is appealed to and treated of as a reality. Whenever the difciples of this fyftem fpeak of the conftitution; of the fundamental articles of the conftitution; of laws being conftitutional or unconftitutional; of inherent, unalienable, inextinguishable rights, either in the prince, or in the people; or indeed of any laws, ufages, or civil rights, as tranfcending the authority of the fubfifting legiflature, or poffefling a force and fanction fuperior to what belong to the modern acts and edicts of the legislature, they fecretly refer us to what paffed at the original convention. They would teach us to believe, that certain rules and ordinances were established by the people at the fame time that they fettled the charter of government, and the powers as well as the form of the future legiflature, which legiflature confequently, deriving its commiffion and exiftence from the confent and act of the primitive affembly (of which indeed it is only the ftanding deputation), continues fubject in the exercife of its offices, and as to the extent of its power, to the rules, refervations, and limitations which the fame aflembly then made and prefcribed to it. 46 "As the firft members of the state were bound by exprefs ftipulation to obey the government "which they had erected, fo the fucceeding inha"bitants of the fame country are understood to "promife allegiance to the conftitution and govern"ment they find established, by accepting its pro"tection, claiming its privileges, and acquiefcing in its laws; more efpecially, by the purchase or "" inheritance |