Citizen or subject?

by Francis X. Hennessy

We have now educated ourselves accurately to know, at the beginning of 1917, what was our own relation to all governments and what was the relation of those governments to one another. With certainty, we know that those relations, at the beginning of 1917, were exactly what they had been at the close of 1790. It is amazingly important that we never forget that particular knowledge, when reading the story of what has happened since the beginning of 1917.

With certainty, through our education we know that, at both times, the following was our own relation to all governments and the relation of each of them to the others.

No individual in America was a “subject” of any government or governments. Each individual was a “citizen” of the nation which is America. The citizens of America, as such citizens, had given to their only government its enumerated powers to interfere with their individual freedom. Those American citizens had given these enumerated powers by direct grant from themselves, in the only manner, in which they can act effectively on such a subject, by assembling in their “conventions.” Those American citizens had made it the imperative law of America that no new power of that kind (to interfere with their freedom) could be created except by the new exercise of their own ability in the same manner.

The very essence of the wisdom and efficiency of the manner of the first exercise was that the exercise was by “conventions” of themselves, chosen by themselves, after specific grants had been proposed to them to be made by them. These “conventions,” chosen from among themselves for the one purpose of saying “Yes” or “No” to the proposed grants, had made those grants in the only way in which the American people “can act safely, effectively and wisely” in the making of such grants. In their Fifth Article, made in the first “convention” exercise, they had mentioned the very “convention” method in which they were then assembled to make their First Article grants. Thus, they made that method CONSTITUTIONAL for future exercise of their own exclusive power to make grants of that kind. Thus they had secured their liberty against any attempt by government to interfere with their individual freedom, as American citizens, except in the matters named in the enumerated powers of the First Article. In this way, they had secured their liberty, in their capacity of American citizens, against any attempt by other governments than their only government at Washington, even in the matters enumerated in the First Article.

Nearly every individual in America was also a citizen of a state. In each state, its citizens had vested the legislative government of the state with limited powers to interfere with the individual freedom of those within the jurisdiction of that state. The limitations upon the power of each state government to interfere with those within its own jurisdiction were, firstly, limitations imposed by the citizens of America in their Constitution upon the power of each state to govern itself; secondly, the limitations imposed by the citizens of each state in their own constitution; and, thirdly, the limitations imposed by the traditional American principle that no government, without limit, can do what it will with the individual freedom of its citizens. In each state, subject to those limitations, its own citizens were exclusively competent to determine the exact quantum of ability which its own legislative government should have to interfere with the individual human freedom of those within its jurisdiction. No government or governments outside each state could interfere with the individual freedom of its citizens, as such citizens, in any matter. No outside government at all, except Congress, could interfere with their freedom, as human beings, in any matter. The legislative governments of the other states, either singly or collectively, on no matter, could either exercise themselves or give to any government a single power to interfere with the human beings in each particular state. The one American government, at Washington, could only interfere with those human beings on the matters enumerated in the First Article. No new ability in that government so to interfere with them could be granted except by direct grant from the citizens of America assembled in their “conventions.” The Fifth Article had been the command of the citizens of America that only a “Yes” from three fourths of those “conventions” of themselves should be valid to add a new power over themselves to those enumerated in their First Article.

From 1776 to 1917 it had been the obeyed fundamental law in America that no government could acquire, from another government or from other governments, any power to interfere with the individual freedom of the human beings within its jurisdiction.

The human beings in each state were members or citizens of the nation which is America. They were also, in each state, the members or citizens of the nation which is that state. The states were also members of their own federation, whose federal government had been continued by the citizens of America. In its personnel, that federal government was identical with the national government of those citizens of America. In the Fifth Article, the citizens of America had recognized and mentioned the existing ability of the states, as political entities, to make constitutional Articles of a federal nature. For that reason, the Fifth Article had been the command of the citizens of America that, when the states exercised their limited ability, a “Yes” from the legislatures of three fourths of the states should be effective to make a federal Article.

In the matter of interference with individual human freedom, so far as experience tells the story, there had continued from 1776 to 1917 the knowledge of the legal fact, made basic American law by the Statute of ’76, that no government could get any national power except by direct grant from its own citizens, and that no government could exercise any national power over any but those in its own jurisdiction and then only by direct grant of that power from its own citizens.

We know that this was the wonderful system of constitutional government under which Americans had lived from 1790 to 1917. We know that the Americans, who were our predecessors in 1787, had prescribed that system as best calculated to protect their human liberty and our own from outside aggression and from usurpation of power by their governments and our own. Educated with them, from the day when they were all subjects of a legislative government, we know much of their struggle to rid themselves forever of the status of “subject” and to become free men. In that education, however, we have dwelt but little so far upon one phase of that struggle. At this point, it is essential that we educate ourselves briefly but accurately on that one phase.

Whenever government exists, even government limited to those powers thought by its citizens necessary to secure human liberty, the weakness of human nature makes it certain that the exercise of granted powers will not always be for the common benefit of the citizens who grant them. When the government is the State and human beings are its “subjects,” that weakness is usually more apparent. As a result, in every country the rich and powerful largely secure the actual control of government. That they may entrench themselves in its control and the exercise of even its lawful powers, they lavish favors on a class actually large in number but comparatively constituting a small minority of the people of the country. For this class, it is of material advantage that government should be the State and command the people as its “subjects.” When a man is born or educated as a member of this minority, it is beyond the experience of the human race that his mental attitude should not regard the relation of “subject” to ruler as the proper relation of human being to government.