229 



come unnecessary. I prefer, therefore, to regard government or politi- 

 cal organization not as an essential element, but as an inseparable acci- 

 dent of the State. No material error will be involved, however, in includ- 

 ing it in the definition, and in deference to common usage and for conve- 

 nience otherwise, the State may be defined as an "autonomous politi- 

 cally organized society ;" or, as Austin defines it, " an independent politi- 

 cal community." 



Thus defined. States may be variously classified, either historically, as 

 the primitive village or tribe, the ancient and the mediaeval city, the feu- 

 dal State, the modern national State, etc., or logically, as subject and in- 

 dependent States, or as simple and complex States, etc. 



Of the last an instructive example is furnished by the feudal regime ; 

 in which the several feuds, each in itself a State, constituted in effect a 

 federal State. Historically, this system is a subject of capital importance, 

 and deserves the most careful consideration, but, except for purposes of 

 illustration, will not be considered in this work. 



To us a much more important example of the complex or composite 

 State is presented by what is called the federal State as developed in mod- 

 ern limes — a subject of extreme interest, and to which we must devote a 

 somewhat extended consideration. 



Before passing to this, however, it will be observed that our definition 

 does not include leagues or confederations of States. These, indeed, are 

 political societies, but of States, not of men, and more properly, there- 

 fore, fall under the subject of the external relations of States. They, 

 however, constitute a most important subject for consideration ; and per- 

 haps in them alone is to be sought the realization of what the Germans 

 call the "idea," as distinguished from the "concept" of the State, and 

 which is to be realized only in the " world- State." 



§13. Of the Fedtral State. 



A federal State, instead of occupying exclusively a certain territory, in 

 fact occupies the territories of the constituent States, out of which it is 

 formed in common with those States ; and thus the people which consti- 

 tutes it consists of the peoples of the several States, regarded for certain 

 purposes as one people. It differs essentially, as we have observed, from a 

 federation, which is a mere league of States, and in which the community 

 constituting the confederacy consists of States, and not of men ; while 

 a federal State is not a community of States, but a people, precisely as in 

 the case of a simple State. On the other hand, the federal State, as well 

 as its constituent States, di2"er from the ordinary, or simple State, in this, 

 that the powers of the former as well as those of the latter are each 

 definitely limited ; or, in other words, the sovereignty, or aggregate of 

 the sovereign, or supreme political powers, is divided between the federal 

 and the constituent States ; so that each is sovereign in the definite sphere 

 of political action allotted to it, and no further. Hence, in a federal 



PRCC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXIV. 148. 2 D. PRINTED AUG. 26, 1895. 



