The Origin, Tendencies and Principles of Government

Limits and Sphere of Government

[Revised from the New York Herald of May 27, 1870.]

Mrs. Woodhull’s Latest Epistle to the Americans — “The Limits and Sphere of Government” Considered From a Female Point of View

[In the following communication Mrs. Woodhull, whose former essays on political matters have been published in the Herald, considers the question of government with special reference to the system under which we live in the United States:]

Having in “The Tendencies of Government” traced the rise and fall of nations, and found that from earliest historic time to the present, there has been a continual grasping for universal power, and a constant failure to maintain the extent of control actually reached; that the systems through which universal control was sought were too imperfect to admit of support for any great length of time over an extended area of country; that the general order of the world seems to indicate that universal government will become a fact, and that the United States shall be the seat of such governmental power, we may now come to consider what control a government must be invested with in order that it shall at all times meet the demands of the people and the times, and therefore be continuous while becoming universal.

It is predicated that government exists by the consent of the governed. While this is nominally true, it virtually contains but an undeveloped germ of truth. In no country as yet does the government exist by the consent of the governed. In this country least of all does it apply, though superficially it may not so appear.

Government is universal. All things in all the various kingdoms of nature are the objects of governing laws which form the subjective order of the universe. In all natural government the relations between the governing power and the powers governed are always well defined, while the requirements of the governed are always met by requisite modes of administration. Each coming demand falls into some common method of being answered. Thus, in the greatest conceivable diversity of conditions, are found the fewest and simplest laws of control. Rising from purely material to the more refined powers of mind, represented only in the human, a new phase of development springs up. Being an individualized power within itself, the human family represents the divine power that controls the whole, and in this relation fashions its governments according to the limitations of its acquired standard of wisdom, which must always necessarily be imperfect in comparison with the common laws of the universe, in the same proportion as human wisdom is imperfect when compared with divine wisdom.

The world of mind has now arrived at an age and corresponding development, which begins to comprehend the general laws of the universe, and to understand their great simplicity and perfect adaptation to all things under them. Seeing that such a perfect system of government exists throughout the universe of matter, the inquiry is beginning to be earnestly made, why the universe of mind cannot be controlled by equally simple and general laws and systems of administration. Seeing that changes are never necessary in the common universal laws, the inquiry is also beginning to be made, why the laws that govern society cannot be so fashioned after the laws of nature as not to require the constant remodelling now necessary when changes come, in the circumstances required to be met.

The solution of the difficulty in which the mind becomes involved when considering these most serious questions, seems reduced to a single proposition—that all strifes, difficulties and controversies regarding government and its administration, arise from the fact, that the governing power is not general but specific in its operations, or that the powers governed are not subservient to a common law of control. This is still more clearly perceptible if the question of “reserved rights” on the part of any of the governed is considered. No individual can have a reservation that militates against the general welfare of others, or the whole, without specific laws to sustain him in it. If no individual can have such special reservation, no number of individuals less than than the whole, can have reservations without specific protection. Therefore no city, county, State, or number of them, less than all cities, counties and States forming a consolidated union, can hold in reserve any rights or privileges that do not contribute to the general welfare of the whole, without sooner or later coming into conflict regarding them. This theory of reserved rights was pretty forcibly, logically and effectually refuted by the late war; so must all such reservations be equally well refuted before permanent peace, harmony and prosperity can be expected to flow from government and it remain permanent.

Analytically and philosophically considered, government exists for the general good of all the governed, in which individual rights and privileges can find freedom and justice without conflict. All systems that exist upon a less comprehensive basis than this must eventually be swept away. All parts of systems that conflict with the general fundamental propositions in which they were based and reared must be expunged, so that administration can be in perfect harmony with profession, before it will be possible for general good to flow from administration. The fundamental propositions upon which this government professes to rest—that all men and women are born free and equal and entitled to the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—are in accordance with the general order of the universe below man, and are therefore of the highest possible authority.

That all are born free is a proposition that no one can question; but this freedom is general to all, and does not refer to the individual, nor entitle him or her to push his freedom so as to encroach upon the same freedom guaranteed to every other individual. Therefore, individual freedom is merged in, and is a part of, general freedom.

That all men and women are born equal is another strictly philosophic proposition that can never be refuted by the concurrent scientific truth that no two of the whole are born alike in every particular. Equality, in a philosophic sense, does not imply similarity or even likeness; one thing may be equal to another, or a number of others, and still be unlike them all. A pound of feathers is equal to a pound of lead in gravitating power, but the lead does not resemble the feathers in any respect; hence, equality does not presuppose likeness.

The pursuit of happiness is an additional common right, naturally resulting from freedom and equality, and which can be prosecuted in any direction that does not interfere with the general pursuit of it on the part of the whole. From this analysis of inherent rights it would seem that it should be the sphere of government to maintain such freedom and equality, and thus guarantee to all and every the pursuit of happiness, and to protect them therein; and, co-relatively, that the limits of government should be nothing less than the circle that will permit such fatherly—such motherly—control.

It will scarcely be questioned by those who accept the evolution of government as a common law, that the government of this country, as a system, comes nearer being an exponent of the philosophic limit and sphere than that of any other country, though it must be confessed that the practices under it belie its fundamental principles. So much is this true, that, while it is safe to assert of the system that it is the best of all, scarcely one can be named wherein so great distinctions obtain between the intentions of the system and the effects obtained by its administration. This follows because, having asserted fundamental principles of freedom and justice, the lines of policy pursued have not been shaped by them. The principles have been lost sight of in the pursuit of party and personal or sectional policies, so that the government is no longer an exponent of principles, but rather of the persons, parties or sections which have raised themselves above principles as authorities: hence the government has limitations put upon the operations of its principles, and becomes thereby inconsistent within itself.

All the corrupt practices that are prevalent in the various parts of the governing process are possible only because the professions and practices of government are not in harmony. The professions of government relate to principles; the practices to its limits and sphere. Therefore, in the present article, the practices will be dealt with. In dealing with them it will come within the intended limits to examine the machinery by which government is administered, and to determine what movements within the body of society should be under its general control, so that all its movements may be made in harmony. Were any other branch of government than that relating to society being examined, its limits and sphere would be found so plainly determined there would be no possibility of even apparent departure by the governing control from them; for in all these the divine power is that control, and consequently is perfect. In society, the divine power, though the controlling element, is maintained over human minds, which are finite and imperfect representatives of the divine power, and are thereby incompetent to so arrange and order subservient circumstances, that harmony shall be the only result of the combinations formed to secure consecutive order.

The government of this country is selected for analysis because, as a system, it is the latest production of the social order of things, and, consequently, the highest in the scale of evolution. It represents a greater “coherent heterogeneity” in its construction than any other, and its “constituent units” are more “distinctly individuated,” which demonstrates that it is the highest order of government yet attained on the globe. The fault in its construction is, that the powers of the constituent units are not harmoniously related to the central power, nor to each other, discord being the natural consequence of such inequality. Though the constituent parts of society are in themselves imperfect, their relations to each other and to the governing power may be so well defined and regulated that their imperfections shall not have power to mar the harmony of action proceeding from the central power. And this is the point which is sought.

LIMITS AND SPHERE OF GOVERNMENT.

[Revised from the New York Herald of June 4, 1870.]

GRAVELY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION AND ITS ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENT, AS VIEWED AND REVIEWED BY ONE OF THE FIRM OF FEMALE BROKERS OF WALL STREET.

There are a variety of operations, natural and artificial, by which the proper limits and sphere of government may be illustrated. It is desirable that some of them be presented, so as to convey a correct idea of a perfect controlling power, which bears the same relations to the parts controlled as government should to the people under it.

The cotton mills of New England are good artificial representatives of government. In them all the various parts are compelled into unity of action by the controlling power evolved from coal or transformed from water. The crude cotton is first taken and freed from all foreign substances by “the picker;” the pure remainder is then formed into a homogeneous mass by “the cards;” this mass is then divided and subdivided into the different degrees of heterogeneity required, and these are more distinctly individuated into “the webbing and filling” by “the jacks and mules,” and are then reunited by “the webber and loom” into cotton cloth, the ultimate result. Every part of this process forms points of resistance more or less easily compelled into unity of purpose. Every bobbin, spindle, shuttle and card are so many different experiences which are required to be gone through with before the result can be reached, while all parts of the process are going on at the same time. The power is the government; the operatives its administrators; the various pieces and parts of the machinery are the people working in the several parts of the process; the cloth is the attained civilization, while the different degrees of fineness are its progressive steps.

Thus it should be with human government. It is the power resident in the central part which should control all the processes by which the people are guided to produce the ultimate result. It should be of such character as to take the people in the homogeneous mass, and, by picking, carding, spinning and weaving, compel them into a unit of action for divine use. Every operation in nature, if analyzed, presents the same process and similar results. A central power competent for its purposes, through various means and avenues, controls the materials into perfected productions, each one of which is perfect of its kind. The sphere of this government is to produce the legitimate result; and its limits are only bounded by the necessities of the power that the result shall flow; but flow it must and does always.

It is then predicated, that a power, competent to produce harmony in that over which it reigns, must be sufficient to control all the different parts to one end; whatever individual or combined points of resistance may be raised to its edicts must yield to the general purpose, even to the extinction of their resistance. It is necessary, therefore, that the governing power must be invested by the governed with the necessary control, to compel them into harmonious action, so that no antagonism may arise, to divert the tendency to unity of purpose. It must not be supposed that a self-constituted, absolute power is argued for; but this power should be one fashioned and organized by and with the consent of the people, who, knowing their weakness and acknowledging it in their sober and wiser moments, shall recognize the necessity of it, to compel them, if need be, to act with the general whole for the general good, even if it seemingly militate against their individual good, and which shall be of sufficient strength and diffusiveness to regulate all the movements within the body of society.

We will now proceed to the analysis of the various operations of government, to find to what the inharmonious relations between the governing power and the resistance are attributable, and thereby be able to determine the required remedy. Wherever this may lead, whatever “infallible” political dogmas it may destroy, or cherished forms and privileges disprove, it will be pursued as relentlessly—unmercifully if you will—as the crucible and the flame proceed to disorganize material compounds and separate their constituent elements into the poisonous, the nutritious and the useful, that the former may be put away and the remainder appropriated to promote the general good.

Government has its centre and its circumference. From its centre its power is distributed to its entire circumference, measuring and shaping the various channels through which it flows, into such form as permits harmony in all its parts, and, having spent its positive force, is then returned to its centre. This centre and circumference must be the perfect body, every member of which must not only bear its proper relations to all the other members, but must be in such accord with them, as to permit the uninterrupted flow and action of the power by which the whole is bound together. No individual member of it can say to the body itself, “I have functions and rights peculiarly my own, which, if they are not such as your general power can recognize as contributing to the general good, you cannot interfere with.” The member, in becoming such, merges its function and power with the general functions and powers of the body. By consenting to become a part of the body it gives up special sovereignty over itself and becomes a part of the general sovereignty. By adding its life and power to the body, it increases the sum total of its life and power and receives its portion of the aggregated and assimilated mass. Its parts and functions must change—if change is required—so that the power distributed to it by the general power can perform its mission in harmony with all its other parts. Like the body human, the body corporate must be under one governing power, while each part is different in form from all other parts, and performs separate—perhaps distinct—functions. The eye may not say to the ear, nor the hand to the foot, “I have no need of you,” for each and all, are alike dependent upon a central part for existence, while the central part could not itself exist without the surrounding and distant parts. The very nature of the compact is, that each and every part is joined in a system of mutual and reciprocal interdependence, to which general system no member can set up for itself any system peculiarly its own, in contradistinction or opposition to, or to interfere with, the general system.

The government of any country, originally, is a compact among a certain number of previously separate or unorganized powers, by which they merge and consolidate into one power, or are compelled so to do. This power, so formed, is the governing power, which, while all parts have contributed to its formation, is in itself superior to any power that can be organized within its limits by any part of the originally consolidating powers. If at any time an opposition is organized to it, the result must either be, the reduction of the opposition or the destruction of the confederation. For a natural illustration the human body is again referred to.

If from any cause an opposition to the harmonious action of the general powers of the body be raised, a contest for supremacy is inevitable. If the bowels refuse to perform their allotted part in the general economy of the whole, a conflict ensues, and never ends until they are returned to duty or until they demonstrate that their opposition to the general administration is more powerful than its general power, and that the organization must be dissolved in conformity to this power. On the other hand, the general power cannot compel any of the constituent parts to conform to rules and forms not operative in the whole, nor to bear any inequality of any kind, nor to perform duty outside its special sphere. The governing power, though superior to all, must itself be subject to the common law of justice. Specialties of conferment or requirement are utterly inconsistent with a perfect form of government. The same rule of contributing to the general support, and in turn receiving appropriate sustaining power, must be uniform throughout the whole. Such a body, thus acting, be it human or corporate, is alone a healthy and harmoniously constituted power. All governments, to be able to contribute to the public welfare, must exist upon general similar principles and act by similar means.

It must again be observed that when several parts or powers are organized into one, no power less than the whole has authority therein; for, in consenting to the union at first, all absolute individuality is forever waived; the individual is no longer simply an individual power, but forms a part of the common power. Nor can absolute individuality ever again be maintained, except a superior antagonistic strength is developed, which demonstrates that the powers originally attempted to be consolidated were impossible of harmonious action—a natural and sufficient reason for dissolution. Tested by these propositions, what conditions and relations does the government of the United States, as a whole composed of parts, present? Does it form one homogeneous whole, the paramount interests of the parts of which is the best welfare of the whole? Does each and every part act in unity and harmony with every other part, and in turn yield to the preponderant authority of the whole, with that grace and dignity which bespeak unison of purpose and interest? If not, where does the difficulty find its starting point? Is it in the system by which the power was organized—in the interpretation of it, or in its administration? For this the Constitution must be referred to to find wherein, if at all, its organization is defective. If the conferment of power by the organization is complete, then it must be concluded that those who administer its organic force either fail to comprehend the extent of its application or to perform their duty in applying it.

LIMITS AND SPHERE OF GOVERNMENT.

[Revised from the New York Herald of June 19, 1870.]