I have written freely
from my own mind as I find it now formed; but how it has been so
formed, or whence I have borrowed, my readers know as well as I.
All that is valuable in the thoughts set forth, it is safe to assume
has been appropriated from others. Where I have been distinctly
conscious of borrowing what has not become common property, I have
given credit, or, at least, mentioned the author's name, with three
important exceptions which I wish to note more formally.
I am principally indebted for the view of the American nationality
and the Federal Constitution I present, to hints and suggestions
furnished by the remarkable work of John C. Hurd, Esq., on The Law of
Freedom and Bondage in the United States, a work of rare learning
and profound philosophic views. I could not have written my work
without the aid derived from its suggestions, any more than I
could without Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas,
Suarez, Pierre Leroux, and the Abbate Gioberti. To these two
last-named authors, one a humanitarian sophist, the other a
Catholic priest, and certainly one of the profoundest
philosophical writers of this century, I am much indebted, though
I have followed the political system of neither. I have taken
from Leroux the germs of the doctrine I set forth on the solidarity
of the race, and from Gioberti the doctrine I defend in relation
to the creative act, which is, after all, simply that of the
Credo and the first verse of Genesis.
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