The thief.
THE LAW IS EVERYWHERE.
When children are sufficiently advanced, they go forth from the parental roof, and whether in the field, the forest, or the street, they find that everywhere there is government and law.
If a child sees ripe fruit in a neighbor’s garden, he sets out to get it, but is immediately told that he must not. He asks why he must not get it, and is answered that it is against the law. A boy is about to throw down a stone wall around a field, and is told he must not, because it is against the law. A young fellow wishes to ride into a neighbor’s field of grain, but he must not, for it is against the law.
A young person, in reading a newspaper, sees an account of a man who is seized and hurried away to prison for theft, and learns that thieving is forbidden by the law. In another paper the reader finds an account of some pirates being hung, because they robbed a vessel upon the high seas, and this, too, because such robbery is against the law.
Thus the law is seen to be everywhere, upon the land and the sea, in town and country; and the question soon arises, who makes the law? The answer to this is readily given; it is the government? But what is the government? Who is it, what is it, that has spread this net-work of prohibition and requisition over the land, involving every member of society in its meshes? Who administers the government? Who makes the government? By what means or instruments does the government operate? Why do people obey the government? How does it acquire such universal and decisive power?
To some or perhaps all of these questions, which, one after another, arise in the mind, young persons gradually obtain answers; but these are usually imperfect and confused. I propose, therefore, to proceed to describe government, its origin, nature, and necessity; its various forms in different parts of the world, and especially that form adopted in our own country.
In the course of this delineation of government, I shall have occasion to exhibit the origin and sources of laws; the manner of their enactment; and the means by which they are made to regulate the conduct of mankind.