y other germ
or seed, bring forth in time according to its kind. If it be a good one,
it will bring forth good fruit; if it be a false or bad one, it will
spread its evil fruits over society. Be it one or the other, it is never
barren; sooner or later, the idea or maxim takes form and substance in
an _Institution_; then it operates, in a material manner, for good or
evil.

To illustrate: a false conception of the nature and authority, of the
legitimate functions, rights and duties of what is called the "State,"
has led, and will, if not corrected, ever lead to the most deplorable
political, social, and religious disorder and oppression. As diverging
lines in mathematics can never approximate, but must continue to widen
as they are extended, so a false departure from a political "standpoint"
can never be rectified unless by a return to correct first principles.
This is what is meant by the democratic maxim, "that a frequent return
to first principles is necessary to secure the ends of public liberty."

Indeed, this error, this diverging point in constitutional
interpretation, has been the real cause--the "causa causarum"--of the
late war; and not the "negro," or "cotton," or the "spirit of
domination," or "difference of race," or what not, might serve as the
"_proximate cause_," but the real cause lay far back of them. I am
willing to admit that political events do not always proceed on a
strictly logical order, but nevertheless there is a sequence, indeed an
inevitable chain of cause and effect in the progress of public affairs,
such as we see in individual conduct, but only on a broader scale.

Now what is the _civil power_, or _State_; what its origin, its
authority, its legitimate functions, its rights and duties? Here I must,
of necessity, be very brief. The State originated from the natural
desire which men experience to obtain certain goods, such as peace,
security of life and property, of personal rights and privileges, etc.,
etc. These are goods which neither individuals, nor families, nor
private corporations can procure for themselves satisfactorily. People
therefore unite to establish a State, in order to attain, through the
State, what they cannot do by their own private exertions. The State,
then, is made by the people and for the people. In our form of
government it is a mere corporate agency. Its duty is to see that
justice is administered, and personal rights and property protected. It
holds the sword