162 Wisconsin state Agricultural society. 
Menu, the Bible, Aristotle, Cicero, Calvin, Hampden, Dr. Clarke, 
Archbishop Butler, Burke, Guizot, Lieber, Barnes, Parker, 
Beecher—authorities of all kinds might be cited, but I will not 
weary your patience with the long array. In all these authorities, 
covering a wide field of space, time, religious faiths and forms of 
government, we trace the genus of the consequent idea now gener¬ 
ally laid down by our writers upon government; that the state and 
its laws must be, so far as their sphere extends, an expression of 
natural right and justice, or they lose their power and authority, 
and will not, and ought not, to be obeyed. They must express 
the average moral sentiment of the people to be governed; and 
will express it, if a means be furnished whereby the moral judg¬ 
ment of each of the constituency can be had upon the action of 
the government. 
In less intelligent and more superstitious ages than the present, 
it was not considered necessary to refer to the moral judgment of 
the people. The matter was readily disposed of by assuming a 
divine origin for the laws and a divine authority for the ruler. 
The Jewish polity was professedly and long entirely theocratic. 
The ancient Indian kings, though of the warrior caste, were sur¬ 
rounded by priests who directed their policies. The Babylonian 
“king of kings,'’ and the rulers of the Medes and Assyrians, 
were even worshipped with divine honors. The Persian kings were 
under the strong influence of the Magi. In Ethiopia a priestly 
caste elected one of their own number ruler, and a like constit¬ 
uency chose the Egyptian kings. 
In all these instances in ancient history, and the fact is unfortu¬ 
nately not entirely ancient, we generally find a close alliance be¬ 
tween the temporal power of a state and the religious teachers of 
the people, whereby the sovereign was brought under the influence 
of the prevaling religion and gave it support, and in turn was 
sanctified and strengthened by it influence. 
The Greeks and Romans in their myths, claimed the gods as 
their law givers and as the progenitors of their rulers. 
“Ideas drawn from the bible,” as Lieber explains, “ were car¬ 
ried over to the crowned heads of Christianity. They came to 
be called the anointed of the Lord, as the kings of Israel were.’ r 
Hence we have, down even to our own time, the union of church 
