Hence, as man is
nowhere found out of society, so nowhere is society found without
government.
Government is necessary: but let it be remarked by the way, that
its necessity does not grow exclusively or chiefly out of the
fact that the human race by sin has fallen from its primitive
integrity, or original righteousness. The fall asserted by
Christian theology, though often misinterpreted, and its effects
underrated or exaggerated, is a fact too sadly confirmed by
individual experience and universal history; but it is not the
cause why government is necessary, though it may be an additional
reason for demanding it. Government would have been necessary if
man had not sinned, and it is needed for the good as well as for
the bad. The law was promulgated in the Garden, while man
retained his innocence and remained in the integrity of his
nature. It exists in heaven as well as on earth, and in heaven
in its perfection. Its office is not purely repressive, to
restrain violence, to redress wrongs, and to punish the
transgressor. It has something more to do than to restrict our
natural liberty, curb our passions, and maintain justice between
man and man. Its office is positive as well as negative. It is
needed to render effective the solidarity of the individuals of a
nation, and to render the nation an organism, not a mere
organization--to combine men in one living body, and to
strengthen all with the strength of each, and each with the
strength of all--to develop, strengthen, and sustain individual
liberty, and to utilize and direct it to the promotion of the
common weal--to be a social providence, imitating in its order
and degree the action of the divine providence itself, and, while
it provides for the common good of all, to protect each, the
lowest and meanest, with the whole force and majesty of society.
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