to maintain them in their
barbarity.

The ancient state of the Germans was military: so that the orders into
which they were distributed, their subordination, their courts, and
every part of their government, must be deduced from an attention to a
military principle.

The ancient German people, as all the other Northern tribes, consisted
of freemen and slaves: the freemen professed arms, the slaves cultivated
the ground. But men were not allowed to profess arms at their own will,
nor until they were admitted to that dignity by an established order,
which at a certain age separated the boys from men. For when a young man
approached to virility,[50] he was not yet admitted as a member of the
state, which was quite military, until he had been invested with a
spear in the public assembly of his tribe; and then he was adjudged
proper to carry arms, and also to assist in the public deliberations,
which were always held armed.[51] This spear he generally received from
the hand of some old and respected chief, under whom he commonly entered
himself, and was admitted among his followers.[52] No man could stand
out as an independent individual, but must have enlisted in one of these
military fraternities; and as soon as he had so enlisted, immediately he
became bound to his leader in the strictest dependence, which was
confirmed by an oath,[53] and to his brethren in a common vow for their
mutual support in all dangers, and for the advancement and the honor of
their common chief. This chief was styled Senior, Lord, and the like
terms, which marked out a superiority in age and merit; the followers
were called Ambacti, Comites, Leudes, Vassals, and other terms, marking
submission and dependence. This was the very first origin of civil, or
rather, military government, amongst the ancient people of Europe; and
it arose from the connection that necessarily was created between the
person who gave the arms, or knighted the young man, and him that
received them; which implied that they were to be occupied in his
service who originally gave them. These principles it is necessary
strictly to attend to, because they will serve much to explain the whole
course both of government and real property, wherever the German
nations obtained a settlement: the whole of their government depending
for the most part upon two principles in our nature,--ambition, that
makes one man desirous, at any hazard or expense, of taking the lead
amongst others,-