Article 3. To Form Nations and Unite the People It Is Necessary to Have a Government

IS NECESSARY TO HAVE A GOVERNMENT.

1st Proposition. — Every thing divides itself, and becomes partial among men.

It was not enough that men inhabited the same country, or spoke the same language, because having become untractable by the violence of their passions, and incompatible by their different

(/) 2 Esd. ii. 1, 2, 5. (, g ) Ibid. ver. 17. ( h ) Ps. cxxxvi.

(0 Ibid. ci. 14, 15.

humours, they could not be united, at least to submit altogether to one government, which regulates all.

Through that defect, Abraham and Lot could not go on well together, and are constrained to separate. “ Neither was the land able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, and they could not dwell together. Whereupon also there arose a strife between the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot....Abraham, therefore, said to Lot: let there be no quarrel. ••.if thou wilt go to the left hand, I will take to the right (j ).”

If Abraham and Lot, two just men, and moreover near relations, could not agree together on account of their domestics, what disorder must not have arisen among the wicked!

2nd Proposition.— The sole authority of government puts a bridle on the passions, and to the violence become natural to men.

“ If thou shaft see the oppressions of the poor, and violent judgments, and justice perverted in the province, wonder not at this matter: for he that is high hath another higher, and their are others still higher than these. Moreover, there is the King that reigneth over all the land subject to him (A).” Justice has only to sustain the authority and subordination of the powers.

This order is the bridle of licentiousness. When every one does what he wills, and has no other rule than his desires, all runs into confusion. A Levite violates all that is most holy in the Law of God. In scripture, the cause is given of this. “ In those days there was no King in Israel, but every one did that which seemed right to himself (/).”

For this reason, when the children of Israel are ready to enter into the land in which they ought to form a body of the State, and a regulated people, Moses says to them: “You shall not do there the things we do here this day, every man that which seemeth good to himself. For until this present time you are not come to rest, and to the possession the Lord your God will give you (m).”

3rd Proposition. — It is by the sole authority of government that union is established among men.

This effect of legitimate command is marked to us by these words, so often repeated in the scriptures: “At the command of Saul, and of the legitimate authority, all Israel went out as one

O') Gen. xiii. 6, 7, 9. ( k ) Eccles. v. 7, 8. (/) Jud. xvii. 6.

(m) Deut. xii. 8, 9.

• ‘ ^Digitized by

Google man (n)” “AH the multitudes as one man, were forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty (o).”

Behold, such is the unity of a people, when each one renouncing his own will, transfers and re-unites it to that of the Prince and the magistrate. Otherwise there is no union; the people become wanderers, like a flock dispersed. “ May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, provide a man that may be over this multitude, and may go out and in before them, and may lead them out, or bring them in; lest the people of the Lord be as sheep without a shepherd (p).”

4th Proposition. — In a regulated government, each individual renounces the right of occupying by force, what is convenient to him.

Take away the government, the earth and all its goods are as common among men as the air and the light. God said to all men: “ Increase and multiply, and fill the earth (r/).” He gave to them all, indiscriminately, “ every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind (r).” According to this primitive right of nature, no one has a particular right to any thing whatever, and every thing is the prey of all.

In a regulated government, no individual has a right, of himself, to occupy any thing. Abraham being in Palestine, asked of the Lords of that country, even the land in which he buried his wife Sarah: “ Give me the right of a burying place with you (*).”

Moses ordained, after the conquest of the land of Canaan, that it should be distributed to the people by the authority of the sovereign Magistrate: " Joshua shall go before thee.” And he afterwards said to Joshua himself, “ Thou shalt bring this people into the land which the Lord swore he would give to their Fathers, and thou shalt divide it by Lot (/).”

The matter was thus accomplished, Joshua made the partition among the tribes and among the individuals, according to the project and the orders of Moses.

From thence arose the right of property; and in general all rights should come from the public authority, without its being permitted to invade any thing, or to attempt any thing by force.

(n) 1 Reg. xi. 7, et alibi. (o) 1 Esd. xi. 64. (j p) Numb, xxvii. 16.

(?) Gen. i. 28 •, ix. 7. (r) Ibid. i. 29. («) Ibid, xxiii. 4.

(/) Deut. xxxi. 3, 7.

6tb Proposition. — By the government each individual becomes stronger.

The reason is, that each one is assisted. All the powers of the nation centre in one, and the Sovereign Magistrate has the right to combine them. “ What, shall your brethren go fight and will you sit here?....We ourselves will go armed and ready for battle, before the children of Israel.... We will not return into our houses until the children of Israel possess their inheritance (w).”

Thus the Sovereign Magistrate has in his hands all the strength of the nation, which submits to, and obeys him. “ And they, (the people) made answer to Josue, and said: All that thou hast commanded us we will do: and whithersoever thou shalt send us, we will go..He that shall gainsay thy mouth, and not obey all thy words, that thou shalt command him, let him die: only take thou courage, and do manfully (t?).”

All strength is transferred to the Sovereign Magistrate: every one strengthens him to the prejudice of his own, and renounces his own life in case of disobedience. The people gain by this; for they recover in the person of the Supreme Magistrate, more strength than they yielded for his authority, since they recover in him, all the strength of the nation re-united to assist them.

Thus each individual is at ease from oppression and violence, because in the person of the Prince he has an invincible defender, and much stronger beyond comparison, than all those who may undertake to oppress them.

The Sovereign Magistrate has an interest in guaranteeing by force, every individual; because, if any other force than his own prevails among the people, his authority and his life are in danger.

Proud and violent men are enemies to authority, and their natural language is, “ Who is Lord over us (u>)? ”

“ In the multitude of people is the dignity of the King (a;):” If he suffers it to be dissipated and overpowered by violent men he does injury to himself.

Thus the Sovereign Magistrate is the natural enemy of all violence. “They that act wickedly are abominable to the King: for his throne is established by justice (y)”

The Prince is then by his charge, to each individual, “ as when one is hid from the wind, and hideth himself from a storm, as rivers of waters in drought, and the shadow of a rock that standeth out in a desert land. • •.And the work of Justice shall be

(«) Numb, xxxii. 6, 14, 17, 18. (») Jos. i. 16, 18. (u>) Ps. xi. 5.

( x ) Prov. xiv. 28. (y) Ibid. xvL 12.

C Dogle peace.. •.and my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and ill the tabernacles of confidence and of wealthy rest (z).” Such are the natural fruits of a regulated government.

In willing to give every thing to force, each one finds himself weak in his justest pretensions, by the multitude of concurrences against which he has to be prepared. But under a legitimate power, each one finds himself strong, in placing all strength in the Magistrate, who has an interest in keeping all in peace, that he may himself be in safety.

In a regulated government, widows, orphans, wards, even infants in the cradle are strong. Their property is preserved for them; the public takes care of their education; their rights aie defended, and their cause is the cause of the magistrate. The whole of the Scripture charges them to do justice to the poor, to the weak, to the widow, the orphan, and to the ward (a).

It is then with reason that St. Paul desires, that “ supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made. ••.for Kings and all who afe in high stations, that we may lead a quiet and a peaceful life, in all piety and chastity (6).”

From all this it results, that there is no state worse than that of anarchy, that is to say, a state in which there is no government nor authority. Where every one would do all that he wills, no one will do that which he wills; where there is no master, every one is master; where every one is master, every one is a slave.

6th Proposition. — The Government perpetuates itself \ and renders States immortal.

When God told Moses that he was about to die, Moses then said to him: “ May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, provide a man that may be over this multitude (c).” Then by the order of God, Moses appointed Joshua his successor, €€ And he set him before Eleazer the Priest, and all the assembly of the people, and laying his hands on his head, he repeated all things that the Lord had commanded (d).” As a sign that power was continued from the one to the other.

After the death of Moses, all the people acknowledged Joshua. u As we obeyed Moses in all things, so will we obey thee also (e).” The Prince died, but authority is immortal, and the State subsists for ever. For which reason, the same designs are pursued: the war began, is continued, and Moses revives in

(*) Isaiah xxxii. 2, 17, 18. (a) Deut. x. 18. — Ps. lxxxi. 8, et alibi.

(b) 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2. (c) Numb, xxvii. 16, 17. (d) Ibid. xxii. 23.

(e) Jos. i. 17.

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Joshua. “ And he said to the Rubenites.... remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord commanded you and a little after, “ and so you shall return into the land of your possession, and you shall dwell in it, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you (/).”

Princes must necessarily change, since men are mortal: but the government ought not to change; authority remains firm, counsels are continued and are eternal.

After the death of Saul, David said to those of Jabes Galead, who had well served that Prince, “ Let your hands be strengthened, and be ye men of valour; for although your Master, Saul, be dead, yet the house of Juda hath anointed me to be their King (g ).”

He would have them to understand, that as authority never dies, they ought to continue their services, the merit of which is immortal in a well regulated State.