CHAPTER XVII.
LAW AND LIBERTY.
Through law rights are secured, and the performance of some duties is enforced. Law is a rule of action, prescribing what shall be done and what shall not be done. Laws exist for the purpose of securing the rights of the people. The enjoyment of rights is liberty.
As the enjoyment of rights depends upon their security, and as they are secured by law, therefore liberty is based upon law. Without law there could be no political liberty, and the civil liberty of the people would be narrow and uncertain. It may be said, therefore, that there can be no true liberty without law; but laws may be so many and so stringent that there can be no liberty. Liberty and just laws are inseparable.
Liberty and rights are of the same kinds, industrial, social, moral or religious, and political. The words "rights," "law," and "liberty" are full of meaning, and in a free country suggest ideas of the deepest reverence.
ORIGIN.--The laws of the country are partly human and partly divine. They were framed by man, but some of them are based upon the laws of God. Some are of recent origin, and many are so ancient that their beginning can not be traced. When men began, to live in society, they began to make laws, for laws at once became necessary. Laws are undergoing constant changes, as new conditions arise and new customs prevail.
KINDS OF LAW.
The moral law prescribes our duties to men, and also to God. It is summed up and revealed in the Ten Commandments, and is the same as the law of nature taught us by our consciences.
The common law consists of the principles and rules of action applied by the courts in cases not regulated by express legislative acts. It is the unwritten law which has been practiced for ages in England and the United States. In all States of the Union, except Louisiana, cases not covered by the acts of the legislature are tried by the common law.