New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-11-29
A CITIZEN Is not 4 SUBJECT.

A CITIZEN Is hot 4 SUBJECT.
Our correspondent. can American
Catholic" writes to controvert our po-
sition that citizen is not a subject. We
respectfully decline the jurisdiction of
DR.. Webster. It has been said that die"
tionary maker may be "allowed to UNDER
stand one word, but not the meaning OF
two words put together" Our cor
respondent might have added the rather
higher authority Of an eminent jurist.
who says that American citizens are
equally with those Of other countries
''bound by allegiance and subsection to
the government and law Of the land"
There we're in our earlier history two
parties in America-the Federalists, who
maintained the doctrine Of implicit and
unreasoning obedience to the govern
ment: the Republicans maintained ex-
actly the opposite doctrine the implicit
obedience Of the government to the
people. Both the eminent word-monger
and the able jnrist belonged to
the first party in its most intense sense.
We belong to the latter party in the spirit
Of John Hampden and of Thomas Jeffer-
son. We except to the dictionary man
because Of his professional inability to ex-
pound a principle; to theju1ist because law
yers have been often unsound advisers OF
political right. We mentioned some time
since the case of Wedderburn. attorney
for the crown. who argued that the people
of English America were represented in
Parliament. inasmuch as they held title
''as belonging to the manor Of East Green
wich." We have unhappily had some ex-
amples of political conformity to profess
sional interest among the Legislative law.
yers of our day.
But we except to either authority on a
far higher ground than distrust Of the
ability of the one OF the integrity of the
other profession mentioned. We are acting
under far higher obligation. 1t is as
an American citizen to judge for ourselves
the extent of our rights and the limit of
our obedience. The theory of Republican
freedom impresses the right and response
bility Of private judgment in civil as well
as in religious opinion. Neither our tenn
poral nor eternal duties are to be judged
for us by others. They must be decided
by ourselves under the judicature appoint
ed by ourselves, according to the forms
prescribed by ourselves. The penalties of
violating our own laws is of losing our
own liberties in the one case. as it would
be the peril Of our own souls in
the other. So. under this sense OF
obligation we. as freemen. put aside
the photographer and attorney. and
judge for ourselves. It is proper to
say that we draw our principles from
Sidney, Grotius and Pufendorf. Repub.
icans, whose definitions of the relations
between government and citizen have
been gradually enacted into the political
system of our own Union and reflected
back. are modifying the doctrines of old
Europe. That the two words citizen and
subject are not synonymous is shown by
the distinct definitions given them. The
citizen is entitled to the privileges Of
city. He is "a freeman as contradis-
from a foreigner or slave" A
subject is zone who is under the dominion
of another" We must, before discussing
this. distinction, set aside also as inadmis-
sible dogma of our correspondent: that
the government of the United States sis a
human government. governing by divine
right through the people" We ac-
knowledge no such human vicegerency.
The doctrine Of ruling by divine right
has come in conflict some centuries since
with the natural rights of the people, and
in spite Of the help of all the divines Of
Charles and James and Louis have been
damned to all temporal purposes. We
could not, perhaps, give better reduc.
ton to the absurdity Of the doctrine that
the voice Of the people is the voice OF
God than that of woman: eyes. she
mildly remarked. sit cried cruelty Him!
cruelty Him.
The simple theory Of the American
republic separates the human municipal
ity from divine government. Regarding
God as omnipotent. the American people
endeavor to conform their laws to the
rules Of duty which he has made known.
but they neither took out special COM
mission. nor do they make monthly re-
ports to anybody in His name.
He has never. in this belief. required
any such thing. and when men come
claiming to govern politically under his
authority the American people ask for the
credentials, and have never yet been
shown any such. Those agents used. in
very old times, and among very ignorant
people, to sell leave to stealan murder in
the name of God. but all that has been
stopped long time ago. and never pre-.
vailed in our country.
AL men. women and children. black.
white and mulatto, were born moral equals
according to the American declaration of
independence. They have been made
political equals by the constitution Of the
United States and the laws enacted there
under. These moral equals. then. could
have passed through a physical existence.