, or tramps in modern England.[372]

+165. Mores conform to changes in life conditions; great principles;
their value and fate.+ For our purpose it suffices here to notice how
the mores have followed the changes in life conditions, how they have
reacted on the current faiths and philosophies, and how they have
produced ethical notions to justify the mores themselves. They have
produced notions of natural rights and of political philosophy to
support the new institutions. There are thousands in the United States
who believe that every adult male has a natural right to vote, and that
the vote makes the citizen. The doctrine of natural rights has received
some judicial recognition, and it has been more or less accepted and
applied in the constitutions of various states which were established in
the nineteenth century. The American doctrines of 1776 and the French
doctrines of 1789 are carried on and used in stump oratory until they
get in the way of some new popular purpose, but what produced both was
the fact that some new classes had won wealth and economic power and
they wanted political recognition. To get it they had to invent some new
"great principles" to justify their revolt against tradition. That is
the way in which all "great principles" are produced. They are always
made for an exigency. Their usefulness passes with the occasion. The
mores are forever adjusting efforts to circumstances. Sooner or later
they need new great principles. Then they obliterate the old ones. The
old jingle of words no longer wins a response. The doctrine is dead. In
1776 it seemed to every Whig in America that it was a pure axiom to say
that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed. They clung to this as a sacred dogma for over a hundred years,
because it did not affect unfavorably any interest. It is untrue.
Governments get their powers from the historical fact of their
existence. They are all ephemeral, subject to change. When a change
takes place it is controlled by the ideas and interests of the time of
change, when the popular element in self-government may be much greater
than when the constitution was last previously established. In 1898 the
popular will, in the United States, was to take possession of the
Philippine Islands and to become rulers there, not ruled, as the fathers
were in the colonies of 1776. The great doctrine of the source of due
power was quickly trampled under foot. The same fate a