9 scope to the political passions to legalize murder for political opinions. It was seeming philanthropy, but real cruelty. It professed to inculcate the rights of man, yet admitted no Divinity, therefore, no charity, in its composition. It had no authority but the caprice of self-will, and in the motives of self-interest. Change and revolution were its rule. Subjection and obedience for conscience sake had no place in its ethics. God and conscience were obliterated. The hoary dogma of the “divine right of kings,” and the popular demand of the right of “selfgovernment,” with many inconsistencies and extravagant claims on either side, came into colli- ■sion. These two opponent systems battled for years in Europe. There seemed to be no point of coalescence, until the English Revolution perfected the British Constitution, and a Constitutional monarch presided over the destinies of the British Empire. The Constitution became the principality and sovereign power—the king, the chief magistrate. Submission to the Constitution was the duty alike of king and subject; while obedience to the magistrate was'the token of the loyalty of the people. The right of revolution was the ultima ratio—the exception, not the rule—of liberty. And this right was founded not in self-will, but in duty to the will of God, as embodied in the Constitution of the British nation. Our Fathers acted on this principle in the American Revolution : maintaining the Constitution of the British empire, in antagonism to a faithless Ministry. The Patriots of our Revolution were the true Loyalists, not rebels. In resisting the Cabinet, they contended for the supremacy of the Constitution of the British nation. They were “subject” unto “ principalities and powers ” for conscience sake, while denouncing the necessity of disobeying “ magistrates.” On the principle of Constitutional Liberty, our fathers established the Government of these United States. The Federal Constitution is the type and the organic instrument of national life. The magistrate under that Constitution is “ the minister of God to thee,” to me, to all our countrymen, “ for good.” The old “ Confederation ” was an abortive experiment of the Compact of States. It resulted in imbecility. The theory of the social compact has
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