Annotation of 42BSD/usr.lib/learn/editor/L53.2b, revision 1.1.1.1

1.1       root        1: #print
                      2: There is a big file "federal" in this directory.
                      3: It contains the following mistyped words:
                      4:   Typed as   Should be
                      5: cotnend       contend
                      6: aalarm        alarm
                      7: exedient      expedient
                      8: drabel        durable
                      9: ugdes         judges
                     10: trame         trample
                     11: viws          views
                     12: 
                     13: Fix things up, rewrite the file, and then type "ready".
                     14: #create Ref
                     15: Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed
                     16: Union, none deserves to be more accurately
                     17: developed than its tendency to break and control the violence
                     18: of faction.
                     19: The friend of popular governments never finds himself
                     20: so much alarmed for their character and fate as when he
                     21: contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice.
                     22: He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on
                     23: any plan which, without violating the principles to which
                     24: he is attached, provides a proper cure for it.
                     25: The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public
                     26: councils have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under
                     27: which popular governments have everywhere perished, as
                     28: they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from
                     29: which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious
                     30: declamations.
                     31: The valuable improvements made by the American constitutions
                     32: on the popular models, both ancient
                     33: and modern, cannot certainly be too much admired;
                     34: but it would be an unwarrantable partiality to contend
                     35: that they have as effectually obviated the danger on this
                     36: side, as was wished and expected.
                     37: Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous
                     38: citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith
                     39: and of public and personal liberty, that out governments
                     40: are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in
                     41: the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too
                     42: often decided, not according to the rules of justice and
                     43: the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force
                     44: of an interested and overbearing majority.
                     45: However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no
                     46: foundation, the evidence of known facts will not permit
                     47: us to deny that they are in some degree true.
                     48: It will be found, indeed, on a candid review of our situation, that
                     49: some of the distresses under which we labor have been
                     50: erroneously charged on the operation of our governments;
                     51: but it will be found, at the same time, that other
                     52: causes will not alone account for many of our heaviest
                     53: misfortunes; and, particularly, for that prevailing and increasing
                     54: distrust of public engagements and alarm for
                     55: private rights which are echoed from one end of the
                     56: continent to the other.
                     57: These must be chiefly, if not wholly,
                     58: effects of the unsteadiness and injustice with
                     59: which a factious spirit has tainted out public administration.
                     60:    By a faction I understand a number of citizens,
                     61: whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole,
                     62: who are united and actuated by some common impulse
                     63: of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other
                     64: citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of
                     65: the community.
                     66:    There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of
                     67: faction: The one,
                     68: by removing its causes; the other, by controlling
                     69: its effects.
                     70:    There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction:
                     71: The one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence;
                     72: The other, by giving to every
                     73: citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the
                     74: same interests.
                     75:    It could never be more truly said than of the first
                     76: remedy that it was worse than the disease.
                     77: Liberty is to
                     78: faction what air is to fire, an ailment without which it
                     79: instantly expires.
                     80: But it could not be less folly to
                     81: abolish liberty, which is essential to political life,
                     82: because it nourishes faction than it would be to wish the
                     83: annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life,
                     84: because it imparts to dire its destructive agency.
                     85:    The second expedient is as impracticable as the first
                     86: would be unwise.
                     87: As long as the reason of man continues
                     88: fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different 
                     89: opinions will be formed.
                     90: As long as the connection subsists
                     91: between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his
                     92: passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other;
                     93: and the former will be objects to which the latter will
                     94: attach themselves.
                     95: The diversity in the faculties of men,
                     96: from which the rights of property originate, is not less an
                     97: insuperable obstacle to the uniformity of interests.
                     98: The protection of these faculties is the first object of
                     99: government.
                    100: From the protection of different and unequal
                    101: faculties of acquiring property, the possession of
                    102: different degrees and kinds of property immediately results;
                    103: and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views
                    104: of the respective proprietors ensues a division of the
                    105: society into different interests and parties.
                    106:    The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the
                    107: nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought
                    108: into different degrees of activity, according to the
                    109: different circumstances of civil society.
                    110: A zeal for different opinions
                    111: concerning religion, concerning government, and
                    112: many other points, as well of speculation as of practice;
                    113: an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending
                    114: for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other
                    115: descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the
                    116: human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into
                    117: parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and
                    118: rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each
                    119: other than to co-operate for their common goal.
                    120: So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual
                    121: animosities that where no substantial occasion presents
                    122: itself the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have
                    123: been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and
                    124: excite their most violent conflicts.
                    125: But the most common and durable
                    126: source of factions has been the verious
                    127: and unequal distribution of property.
                    128: Those who hold and those who are without
                    129: property have ever formed distinct
                    130: interests in society.
                    131: Those who are creditors, and those
                    132: who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination.
                    133: A landed interest, a manufacturing interest,
                    134: a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest,
                    135: with many lesser interests, grow up of
                    136: necessity in civilized nations, and divided them into
                    137: different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views.
                    138: The regulation of these various and interfering interests
                    139: involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary
                    140: and ordinary operations of government.
                    141:    No man is allowed to be a judge in has own cause,
                    142: because his interest would certainly bias his judgement,
                    143: and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.
                    144: With equal, nay with greater reason, a body
                    145: of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time;
                    146: yet what are many of the most important acts of
                    147: legislation but so many judicial determinations,
                    148: not indeed concerning the
                    149: rights of single person, but concerning the rights of large
                    150: bodies of citizens?
                    151: And what are the different classes of legislators but
                    152: advocates and parties to the causes which
                    153: they determine?
                    154: Is a law proposed concerning private
                    155: debts?
                    156: It is a question to which the creditors are parties
                    157: one one side and the debtors on the other.
                    158: Justice ought to hold the balance
                    159: between them.
                    160: Yet the parties are, and must be,
                    161: themselves the judges; and the most numerous
                    162: party, or in other words, the most powerful faction must
                    163: be expected to prevail.
                    164: Shall domestic manufacturers be
                    165: encouraged, and in what degree, by restrictions on foreign
                    166: manufacturers?
                    167: are questions which would be differently
                    168: decided by the landed and the manufacturing classes, and
                    169: probably by neither with a sole regard to justice and the
                    170: public good.
                    171: The apportionment of taxes on the various
                    172: descriptions of property is an act which seems to require
                    173: the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no
                    174: legislative act in which greater opportunity and
                    175: temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the
                    176: rules of justice.
                    177: Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior
                    178: number is a shilling saved to their own pockets.
                    179:    It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be
                    180: able to adjust these clashing interests and render them
                    181: all subservient to the public good.
                    182: Enlightened statesmen will not
                    183: always be at the helm.
                    184: Nor, in many cases, can
                    185: such an adjustment be made at all without taking into
                    186: view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely
                    187: prevail over the immediate interest which one party may
                    188: find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of
                    189: the whole.
                    190:    The inference to which we are brought is that the causes
                    191: of faction cannot be removed and that relief is only to be
                    192: sought in the means of controlling its effects.
                    193:    If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is
                    194: supplied by the republican principle, which enables the
                    195: majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote.
                    196: It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society;
                    197: But it will be unable to execute and mask its violence
                    198: under the forms of the Constitution.
                    199: When a majority is included in a faction,
                    200: The form of popular government, on
                    201: the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion
                    202: or interest both the public good and the rights of other
                    203: citizens.
                    204: To secure the public good and private rights
                    205: against the danger of such a faction, and at the same
                    206: time to preserve the spirit and form of popular
                    207: government, is than the great object to which our inquiries
                    208: are directed.
                    209: Let me add that it is the great desideratum by which
                    210: alone this form of government can be rescued from
                    211: the opprobrium under which it has so long labored and
                    212: be recommended to the esteem and adoption of mankind.
                    213: #create federal
                    214: Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed
                    215: Union, none deserves to be more accurately
                    216: developed than its tendency to break and control the violence
                    217: of faction.
                    218: The friend of popular governments never finds himself
                    219: so much alarmed for their character and fate as when he
                    220: contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice.
                    221: He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on
                    222: any plan which, without violating the principles to which
                    223: he is attached, provides a proper cure for it.
                    224: The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public
                    225: councils have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under
                    226: which popular governments have everywhere perished, as
                    227: they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from
                    228: which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious
                    229: declamations.
                    230: The valuable improvements made by the American constitutions
                    231: on the popular models, both ancient
                    232: and modern, cannot certainly be too much admired;
                    233: but it would be an unwarrantable partiality to cotnend
                    234: that they have as effectually obviated the danger on this
                    235: side, as was wished and expected.
                    236: Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous
                    237: citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith
                    238: and of public and personal liberty, that out governments
                    239: are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in
                    240: the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too
                    241: often decided, not according to the rules of justice and
                    242: the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force
                    243: of an interested and overbearing majority.
                    244: However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no
                    245: foundation, the evidence of known facts will not permit
                    246: us to deny that they are in some degree true.
                    247: It will be found, indeed, on a candid review of our situation, that
                    248: some of the distresses under which we labor have been
                    249: erroneously charged on the operation of our governments;
                    250: but it will be found, at the same time, that other
                    251: causes will not alone account for many of our heaviest
                    252: misfortunes; and, particularly, for that prevailing and increasing
                    253: distrust of public engagements and aalarm for
                    254: private rights which are echoed from one end of the
                    255: continent to the other.
                    256: These must be chiefly, if not wholly,
                    257: effects of the unsteadiness and injustice with
                    258: which a factious spirit has tainted out public administration.
                    259:    By a faction I understand a number of citizens,
                    260: whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole,
                    261: who are united and actuated by some common impulse
                    262: of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other
                    263: citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of
                    264: the community.
                    265:    There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of
                    266: faction: The one,
                    267: by removing its causes; the other, by controlling
                    268: its effects.
                    269:    There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction:
                    270: The one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence;
                    271: The other, by giving to every
                    272: citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the
                    273: same interests.
                    274:    It could never be more truly said than of the first
                    275: remedy that it was worse than the disease.
                    276: Liberty is to
                    277: faction what air is to fire, an ailment without which it
                    278: instantly expires.
                    279: But it could not be less folly to
                    280: abolish liberty, which is essential to political life,
                    281: because it nourishes faction than it would be to wish the
                    282: annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life,
                    283: because it imparts to dire its destructive agency.
                    284:    The second exedient is as impracticable as the first
                    285: would be unwise.
                    286: As long as the reason of man continues
                    287: fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different 
                    288: opinions will be formed.
                    289: As long as the connection subsists
                    290: between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his
                    291: passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other;
                    292: and the former will be objects to which the latter will
                    293: attach themselves.
                    294: The diversity in the faculties of men,
                    295: from which the rights of property originate, is not less an
                    296: insuperable obstacle to the uniformity of interests.
                    297: The protection of these faculties is the first object of
                    298: government.
                    299: From the protection of different and unequal
                    300: faculties of acquiring property, the possession of
                    301: different degrees and kinds of property immediately results;
                    302: and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views
                    303: of the respective proprietors ensues a division of the
                    304: society into different interests and parties.
                    305:    The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the
                    306: nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought
                    307: into different degrees of activity, according to the
                    308: different circumstances of civil society.
                    309: A zeal for different opinions
                    310: concerning religion, concerning government, and
                    311: many other points, as well of speculation as of practice;
                    312: an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending
                    313: for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other
                    314: descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the
                    315: human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into
                    316: parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and
                    317: rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each
                    318: other than to co-operate for their common goal.
                    319: So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual
                    320: animosities that where no substantial occasion presents
                    321: itself the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have
                    322: been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and
                    323: excite their most violent conflicts.
                    324: But the most common and drabel
                    325: source of factions has been the verious
                    326: and unequal distribution of property.
                    327: Those who hold and those who are without
                    328: property have ever formed distinct
                    329: interests in society.
                    330: Those who are creditors, and those
                    331: who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination.
                    332: A landed interest, a manufacturing interest,
                    333: a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest,
                    334: with many lesser interests, grow up of
                    335: necessity in civilized nations, and divided them into
                    336: different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views.
                    337: The regulation of these various and interfering interests
                    338: involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary
                    339: and ordinary operations of government.
                    340:    No man is allowed to be a judge in has own cause,
                    341: because his interest would certainly bias his judgement,
                    342: and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.
                    343: With equal, nay with greater reason, a body
                    344: of men are unfit to be both ugdes and parties at the same time;
                    345: yet what are many of the most important acts of
                    346: legislation but so many judicial determinations,
                    347: not indeed concerning the
                    348: rights of single person, but concerning the rights of large
                    349: bodies of citizens?
                    350: And what are the different classes of legislators but
                    351: advocates and parties to the causes which
                    352: they determine?
                    353: Is a law proposed concerning private
                    354: debts?
                    355: It is a question to which the creditors are parties
                    356: one one side and the debtors on the other.
                    357: Justice ought to hold the balance
                    358: between them.
                    359: Yet the parties are, and must be,
                    360: themselves the judges; and the most numerous
                    361: party, or in other words, the most powerful faction must
                    362: be expected to prevail.
                    363: Shall domestic manufacturers be
                    364: encouraged, and in what degree, by restrictions on foreign
                    365: manufacturers?
                    366: are questions which would be differently
                    367: decided by the landed and the manufacturing classes, and
                    368: probably by neither with a sole regard to justice and the
                    369: public good.
                    370: The apportionment of taxes on the various
                    371: descriptions of property is an act which seems to require
                    372: the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no
                    373: legislative act in which greater opportunity and
                    374: temptation are given to a predominant party to trame on the
                    375: rules of justice.
                    376: Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior
                    377: number is a shilling saved to their own pockets.
                    378:    It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be
                    379: able to adjust these clashing interests and render them
                    380: all subservient to the public good.
                    381: Enlightened statesmen will not
                    382: always be at the helm.
                    383: Nor, in many cases, can
                    384: such an adjustment be made at all without taking into
                    385: view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely
                    386: prevail over the immediate interest which one party may
                    387: find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of
                    388: the whole.
                    389:    The inference to which we are brought is that the causes
                    390: of faction cannot be removed and that relief is only to be
                    391: sought in the means of controlling its effects.
                    392:    If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is
                    393: supplied by the republican principle, which enables the
                    394: majority to defeat its sinister viws by regular vote.
                    395: It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society;
                    396: But it will be unable to execute and mask its violence
                    397: under the forms of the Constitution.
                    398: When a majority is included in a faction,
                    399: The form of popular government, on
                    400: the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion
                    401: or interest both the public good and the rights of other
                    402: citizens.
                    403: To secure the public good and private rights
                    404: against the danger of such a faction, and at the same
                    405: time to preserve the spirit and form of popular
                    406: government, is than the great object to which our inquiries
                    407: are directed.
                    408: Let me add that it is the great desideratum by which
                    409: alone this form of government can be rescued from
                    410: the opprobrium under which it has so long labored and
                    411: be recommended to the esteem and adoption of mankind.
                    412: #user
                    413: #cmp federal Ref
                    414: #log
                    415: #next
                    416: 54.1a 10

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