The Government Class Book | Page 5

perceive what is right and what is wrong; and to know that they ought to do what is right and to forbear to do what is wrong. Their reason enables them to understand the meaning of laws, and to discover what laws are necessary to regulate the social actions of men. Hence we conclude that they are fitted and designed for society, and for government and law.
��10. The youngest reader probably knows, that in speaking of society, we do not refer to any of those associations usually called societies, but to civil society, composed of the people of a state or nation. A nation, or state, is a large number of persons united under some form of government; as, the French nation; the British nation; or the state of New-York; the state of Virginia. Sometimes it signifies the ruling or governing power of a state or nation, as, the state has provided for educating its citizens, and for supporting the poor.
��11. The object of the people in forming a state association, or, as is sometimes said, of entering into civil society, is to promote their mutual safety and happiness. In uniting for this purpose, they agree to be governed by certain established rules and principles; and the governing of the people of a state or nation according to these rules, is called civil government. The word government also signifies the rules and principles themselves by which the people are governed; and sometimes the persons who administer the government--that is those who make the laws of a state and carry them into effect--are called _the government_.
Chapter II.
Rights and Liberty, defined.

��1. We have spoken of the rights of men, and of laws as designed to secure to men the free enjoyment of their rights. But a more particular definition of rights and laws will be useful to young persons just commencing the study of civil government.
��2. A right means ownership, or the just claim or lawful title which a person has to anything. What we have acquired by honest labor, or other lawful means, is rightfully our own; and we are justly entitled to the free use and enjoyment of it. We have a right also to be free in our actions. We may go where we please, and do what ever we think necessary for our own safety and happiness; provided we do not trespass upon the rights of others; for it must be remembered that others have the same rights as ourselves.
��3. The rights here mentioned are natural rights. They are so called because they are ours by nature or by birth; and they can not be justly taken from us or alienated. Hence they are also called inalienable. We may, however, forfeit them by some offense or crime. If, for example, a man is fined for breaking a law, he loses his right to the money he is obliged to pay. By stealing, he forfeits his liberty, and may be justly imprisoned. By committing murder, he forfeits his right to life, and may be hanged.
��4. Rights are also called personal, political, civil, and religious. Personal rights, or the rights of persons, are rights belonging to persons as individuals, and consist of the right of personal security, or the right to be secure from injury to our bodies, or persons, or our good names; the right of personal liberty, or the liberty of moving, acting, or speaking without unjust restraint; and the _right of property_, or the right to acquire and enjoy property. The terms rights of person and rights of persons, or personal rights, have not the same meaning. The rights of person, as the term is generally used, does not include the right of property; personal rights include both the right of property and the rights of person.
��5. Political rights are those which belong to the people in their political capacity. The word political, in a general sense, relates to government. The whole body of the people united under one government, is called the political body, or body politic. The right of the people to choose and establish for themselves a form of government, or constitution, and the right to elect persons to make and execute the laws, are political rights. The right of voting at elections is therefore a political right.
��6. Civil rights are those which are secured to the citizens by the laws of the state. Some make no distinction between civil rights and political rights. In a proper sense--that in which the terms are here used--there is this difference: political rights are those secured by the political or fundamental law, called the constitution; civil rights are more properly those which are secured by the civil or municipal laws. The difference will more clearly appear from the definition elsewhere given of the political and civil laws.