100 The Evolution of the State. 



inent, when he declared it to be "to find a form of society 

 in which each one, uniting himself with the whole, shall 

 yet obey himself and remain as free as before." Yet no 

 student of the French Revolution can fail to find sufficient 

 causes for its failure in the essential limitations of its 

 environment. 



Here, then, was a serious challenge to posterity. Black- 

 stone had but just proclaimed that the natural foundations 

 of fovereignty were "wisdom to discern the real interest 

 of the community, goodness to endeavor always to pursue 

 that real interest, and strength or power to carry this 

 knowledge and intention into action." The edict of the 

 new republic set forth that all these natural foundations 

 of sovereignty were inherent in the common citizen. 



Let us consider for a moment the development of this 

 new republic. Happily we may do so from the standpoint 

 of a full century's experience. In seeking for the causes 

 of what we shall find as its fruition, one of the lirst mis- 

 takes will doubtless be to attribute to the agency of the 

 Constitution, itself, far more than can be justly claimed 

 for it. With a favoring climate, a virgin soil, freedom 

 from intestine broils, and from foreign wars either of con- 

 quest or of defence a sturdy race of men, filled Avith the 

 unconquerable resolution which characterized our early 

 immigrants, would perhaps have given an impetus to our 

 Western civilization which no mere form of government 

 would have withstood or hindered. 



Again, it is not to be forgotten that this sacred instru- 

 ment was itself a patchwork of concessions, holding within 

 its terms a flat denial of the absolute rights of men, and 

 made possible as the organic law only by the surrender of 

 convictions which were not lightly held by the States of 

 New York and llhode Island, which were among the last 

 to adopt it. Indeed, the question is now very seriously, 

 and with great force, raised, whether we shall be able 

 effectually to deal with evils which are manifestly grave, 

 until we shall have deliberately revised this great Charter 

 of our liberty. 



Among the recent contributions to the literature of states- 

 manship, one of the strongest in its statement and in the 

 admirable temper of its pages is a small work on True Dem- 

 ocratic Government, written a few years ago by Albert 

 Stickney. After setting forth the advantages of a Demo- 



