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Brownson, Orestes Augustus, 1803-1876

"The American Republic : constitution, tendencies and destiny"

There must, then, be for every state or nation a
constitution anterior to the constitution which the nation gives
itself, and from which the one it gives itself derives all its
vitality and legal force.
Logic and historical facts are here, as elsewhere, coincident,
for creation and providence are simply the expression of the
Supreme Logic, the Logos, by whom all things are made. Nations
have originated in various ways, but history records no instance
of a nation existing as an inorganic mass organizing itself into
a political community. Every nation, at its first appearance
above the horizon, is found to have an organization of some sort.
This is evident from the only ways in which history shows us
nations originating. These ways are: 1. The union of families in
the tribe. 2. The union of tribes in the nation. 3. The migration
of families, tribes, or nations in search of new settlements.
4. Colonization, military, agricultural, commercial, industrial,
religious, or penal. 5. War and conquest. 6. The revolt,
separation, and independence of provinces. 7. The intermingling
of the conquerors and conquered, and by amalgamation forming a
new people. These are all the ways known to history, and in none
of these ways does a people, absolutely destitute of all
organization, constitute itself a state, and institute and carry
on civil government.


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