O

ESSAYS

ON

HUMAN RIGHTS

AND THEIR

POLITICAL GUARANTIES:

BY E. P. HURLBUT,

COUNSELOR AT LAW IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK.

C NEW-YORK:
GREELEY & MCELRATH, 158 NASSAU-STREET.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845,

BY GREELEY & MCELRATH,

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

CHAPTER I.

THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN RIGHTS..
.Page 7 to 27
Rights are not created by the law. It cannot prescribe a duty or declare a
right except in consonance with the Natural Laws. The law ought to be
merely declaratory of Natural Rights and Wrongs.-The necessity of a Men.
tal Philosophy to a proper understanding of Human Rights.-Phrenology
adopted as the true Philosophy of Mind.-Mr. Bentham's error in denying
Natural Rights.-Theory of Human Rights based on the innate powers and
dispositions of the mind.-The fundamental rights of man are, the Right to
Existence and the Right to Happiness.-The Argument stated.—The Natural
Depravity of Man denied.-The faculties of Mankind considered in reference
to the Social State.-The Argument.-Right to live in Society inferred.-And
such being the right of mankind, the State cannot require the surrender of

any Natural Rights from the Social Man.

THE TRUE FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT.
.p. 28-46

Government is a thing of Moral Necessity, arising from inferior intellectual and

Moral organizations in a portion of Mankind.-The doctrine of Equality con

sidered. What degree of moral restraint may be imposed by Government.

A good man needs no coercion from the law.-The true idea of Civil Liber-

ty. The adaptation of the Laws to the Constitution of the Human Mind.-
The laws ought to be general, equal, and impartial.-Privileges at war with
Rights. The usurpation and injustice of Special Legislation.

CHAPTER III.

THE CONSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT
..p. 46-61

The people as Sovereign by the Constitution delegate the power of govern-

ment to their representatives or agents. In a pure Democracy there is no ne.

cessity for a written Constitution.-Reasons for a written Constitution in a

Representative Government.-The office of the Constitution.-It is not irre-

Vocable-but may be altered or changed at the pleasure of the majority of

the people. The people cannot bind themselves irrevocably to any form of

Government or mode of administration.-The distribution of the powers of

Government by the Constitution.-Appointment of officers--Their choice by

the people.-Reflections upon American imitations of the British Constitution,