ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, by

JAMES E. CALHOUN,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District

ADVERTISEMENT.

Ir may be proper to state, that the manuscripts from which the following work is published, were never revised or corrected by their illustrious author. When, during his last illness, they were placed by him in the hands of the editor, he indulged the hope of regaining sufficient strength to perform this labor; but it is scarcely necessary to say that the expectation was never realized. The Disquisition on Government had, indeed, been copied before his death; but it is almost certain he never found time to examine the copy. The Discourse on the Constitution, &c.—with the exception of a few pages, was in his own handwriting, on loose sheets,-bearing evident marks of interrupted and hurried composition. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the principal portion of it, if not the entire Work, was composed between the adjournment of Congress in the Spring of 1848, and its meeting in December, 1849.

In preparing the manuscripts for the press, the editor has sedulously endeavored to preserve, not only the peculiar modes of expression, but the very words of the author;-without regard to ornaments of style or rules of criticism. They who knew him well, need not to be told that, to these, he paid but slight respect. Absorbed by his subject, and earnest in his efforts to present the truth to others, as it appeared to himself, he regarded neither the arts nor the ornaments of meretricious elocution. He wrote as

he spoke, sometimes negligently, yet always plainly and forcibly, and it is due to his own character, as well as to the public expectation, that his views should be presented in the plain and simple garb in which he left them. The granite statue, rough-hewn though it be, is far more imposing in its simple and stern, though rude proportions, than the plaster-cast, however elaborately wrought and gilded. Some few sentences have been transposed, some repetitions omitted, and some verbal inaccuracies, necessarily incident to hurried composition, corrected. With these excep

tions, and they are comparatively few, the Work is as it came from the hands of the author; and is given to the public with no other comment than that made by himself in a letter dated the 4th of November, 1849—" I wish my errors to be pointed out. I have set down only what I believed to be true; without yielding an inch to the popular opinions and prejudices of the day. I have not dilated, but left truth, plainly announced, to battle its own way."

FEBRUARY 22d, 1851.

A DISQUISITION ON GOVERNMENT.

In order to have a clear and just conception of the nature and object of government, it is indispensable to understand correctly what that constitution or law of our nature is, in which government originates; or, to express it more fully and accurately,—that law, without which government would not, and with which, it must necessarily exist. Without this, it is as impossible to lay any solid foundation for the science of government, as it would be to lay one for that of astronomy, without a like understanding of that constitution or law of the material world, according to which the several bodies composing the solar system mutually act on each other, and by which they are kept in their respective spheres. The first question, accordingly, to be considered is,—What is that constitution or law of our nature, without which government would not exist, and with which its existence is necessary?

In considering this, I assume, as an incontestable fact, that man is so constituted as to be a social be

ing. His inclinations and wants, physical and moral, irresistibly impel him to associate with his kind; and he has, accordingly, never been found, in any age or country, in any state other than the social. In no other, indeed, could he exist; and in no other, -were it possible for him to exist, could he attain to a full development of his moral and intellectual faculties, or raise himself, in the scale of being, much above the level of the brute creation.

I next assume, also, as a fact not less incontestable, that, while man is so constituted as to make the social state necessary to his existence and the full development of his faculties, this state itself cannot exist without government. The assumption rests on universal experience. In no age or country has any society or community ever been found, whether enlightened or savage, without government of some description.

Having assumed these, as unquestionable phenomena of our nature, I shall, without further remark, proceed to the investigation of the primary and important question,-What is that constitution of our nature, which, while it impels man to associate with his kind, renders it impossible for society to exist without government?

The answer will be found in the fact, (not less incontestable than either of the others,) that, while man is created for the social state, and is accordingly so formed as to feel what affects others, as well as what affects himself, he is, at the same time, so constituted as to feel more intensely what affects him directly, than what affects him indirectly