













THE

AMERICAN REPUBLIC:

ITS

CONSTITUTION, TENDENCIES, AND DESTINY.


BY

O. A. BROWNSON, LL. D.





NEW YORK:

P. O'SHEA, 104 BLEECKER STREET.

1866.



Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1865, By P. O'SHEA,

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for
the Southern District of New York.




  TO THE
  HON. GEORGE BANCROFT,
  THE ERUDITE, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND ELOQUENT
  Historian of the United States,

  THIS FEEBLE ATTEMPT TO SET FORTH THE PRINCIPLES OF
  GOVERNMENT, AND TO EXPLAIN AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF
  THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
  IN MEMORY OF OLD FRIENDSHIP, AND AS A
  SLIGHT HOMAGE TO GENIUS, ABILITY,
  PATRIOTISM, PRIVATE WORTH,
  AND PUBLIC SERVICE,
  BY THE AUTHOR.



CONTENTS.

                                                             PAGE

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION                                                    1


CHAPTER II.

GOVERNMENT                                                     15


CHAPTER III.

ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT                                           26


CHAPTER IV.

ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT--Continued                                 43


CHAPTER V.

ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT--Continued                                71


CHAPTER VI.

ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT--Concluded                               106


CHAPTER VII.

CONSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT                                    136


CHAPTER VIII.

CONSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT--Concluded                         166


CHAPTER IX.

THE UNITED STATES                                             192


CHAPTER X.

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES                             218


CHAPTER XI.

THE CONSTITUTION--Continued                                   244


CHAPTER XII.

SECESSION                                                     277


CHAPTER XIII.

RECONSTRUCTION                                                309


CHAPTER XIV.

POLITICAL TENDENCIES                                          348


CHAPTER XV.

DESTINY--POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS                              392





PREFACE.


In the volume which, with much diffidence, is here offered to the
public, I have given, as far as I have considered it worth giving, my
whole thought in a connected form on the nature, necessity, extent,
authority, origin, ground, and constitution of government, and the
unity, nationality, constitution, tendencies, and destiny of the
American Republic.  Many of the points treated have been from time to
time discussed or touched upon, and many of the views have been
presented, in my previous writings; but this work is newly and
independently written from beginning to end, and is as complete on the
topics treated as I have been able to make it.

I have taken nothing bodily from my previous essays, but I have used
their thoughts as far as I have judged them sound and they came within
the scope of my present work.  I have not felt myself bound to adhere
to my own past thoughts or expressions any farther than they coincide
with my present convictions, and I have written as freely and as
independently as if I had never written or published any thing before.
I have never been the slave of my own past, and truth has always been
dearer to me than my own opinions.  This work is not only my latest,
but will be my last on politics or government, and must be taken as the
authentic, and the only authentic statement of my political views and
convictions, and whatever in any of my previous writings conflicts with
the principles defended in its pages, must be regarded as retracted,
and rejected.

The work now produced is based on scientific principles; but it is an
essay rather than a scientific treatise, and even good-natured critics
will, no doubt, pronounce it an article or a series of articles
designed for a review, rather than a book.  It is hard to overcome the
habits of a lifetime.  I have taken some pains to exchange the reviewer
for the author, but am fully conscious that I have not succeeded.  My
work can lay claim to very little artistic merit.  It is full of
repetitions; the same thought is frequently recurring,--the result, to
some extent, no doubt, of carelessness and the want of artistic skill;
but to a greater extent, I fear, of "malice aforethought."  In
composing my work I have followed, rather than directed, the course of
my thought, and, having very little confidence in the memory or
industry of readers, I have preferred, when the completeness of the
argument required it, to repeat myself to encumbering my pages with
perpetual references to what has gone before.

That I attach some value to this work is evident from my consenting to
its publication; but how much or how little of it is really mine, I am
quite unable to say.  I have, from my youth up, been reading,
observing, thinking, reflecting, talking, I had almost said writing, at
least by fits and starts, on political subjects, especially in their
connection with philosophy, theology, history, and social progress, and
have assimilated to my own mind what it would assimilate, without
keeping any notes of the sources whence the materials assimilated were
derived.  I have written freely from my own mind as I find it now
formed; but how it has been so formed, or whence I have borrowed, my
readers know as well as I. All that is valuable in the thoughts set
forth, it is safe to assume has been appropriated from others.  Where I
have been distinctly conscious of borrowing what has not become common
property, I have given credit, or, at least, mentioned the author's
name, with three important exceptions which I wish to note more
formally.

I am principally indebted for the view of the American nationality and
the Federal Constitution I present, to hints and suggestions furnished
by the remarkable work of John C. Hurd, Esq., on The Law of Freedom and
Bondage in the United States, a work of rare learning and profound
philosophic views.  I could not have written my work without the aid
derived from its suggestions, any more than I could without Plato,
Aristotle, St. Augustine, St.