SKETCH OF FRANCIS LIEBER. 409 



Ethics, also a dangerous one, because in exploring a new field he had 

 to touch some of the most vital and delicate points. His life in the 

 South, although uncongenial to him, was a period of rich production, 

 and he became the author of the first great original treatise on 

 political science in America. He had long occupied himself with 

 the thought of writing on political ethics. He felt that the many- 

 sub jects which have a strong influence on politics, and yet do not 

 belong to political or legal science, should be treated soundly and 

 truthfully. These subjects included the ethical nature of man, pub- 

 lic opinion, parties, factions, opposition, love of truth, perseverance, 

 the duty of representatives, judges, advocates, officeholders, and the 

 pardoning power. The keynote of the Political Ethics is, " No right 

 without its duties, no duty without its rights." The work called 

 forth the warmest admiration of jurists, statesmen, and historians. 



Lieber made another valuable contribution to political science 

 in The Legal and Political Hermeneutics, published in 1839. One 

 of the first articles which he read after landing in New York was in 

 a paper opposed to the administration of President Adams. The 

 writer founded his objections on the construction of the Constitution. 

 The subject was new to Lieber, as political construction of this kind 

 is peculiar to America, where the idea of a written constitution was 

 first realized on a large scale. His attention was attracted by the 

 novelty, and when he began his work on Political Ethics he was led 

 to reflect more deeply on constitutional construction. The value 

 of the work is stated in The Nation as follows: "Many of the 

 topics discussed were at this time new, doubtful, and difficult, and 

 Lieber lived to find conclusions which he had arrived at and was the 

 first to express thirty years ago, referred to by writers of the present 

 day as familiar political truths, without, perhaps, any conception 

 on the part of the writers of the source whence they were derived. " 

 Lieber's best known work and greatest contribution to political sci- 

 ence is his Civil Liberty and Self -Government, published in 1853. 

 It was written during the vicissitudes of the French Government, 

 and can not be read with profit without taking into view the events 

 of 1848 and the empire of Napoleon III, for through the book there 

 are drawn frequent contrasts between Anglican and Gallican liberty. 

 The Civil Liberty and Self-Government at once attracted the atten- 

 tion of scholars. In 1854 Woolsey put the book into the hands of 

 his pupils in Yale College. Professor Creasy, of England, author 

 of the Rise and Progress of the British Constitution, said : " Dr. 

 Lieber is the first who has pointed out the all-important principle of 

 English and American liberty, that every officer remains individu- 

 ally responsible for what he does, no matter whether he acts under 

 the order of his superiors or not a principle wholly unknown in 



