Abstract

Government, and Our Government

The article focuses on the book "The American Republic: Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny," by O.A. Brownson. The reader is thus brought to the consideration of the Constitution of the U.S., the sources of their national sovereignty, the relations of the General and State governments, the causes of the rebellion, and the questions arising from reconstruction. Brownson believes that the constitution of government to be quite a perfect adaptation to the antecedent or unwritten constitution of the state. He now denies the doctrine of State sovereignty, as he held it for more than thirty years, and up to the time when the logical consequences of false opinions on this subject plunged into war in 1861. Indeed, he rejects the term State sovereignty as historically improper, holding that the original States never exercised sovereign powers, and could not, therefore, be said to have ceded them.