" He is entitled to all the freedom, in these and
in other respects, that is consistent with the safety and the rights of
others and the weal of the community, but political sovereignty, which
is the source and origin of all the powers of _government_--legislative,
executive, and judicial--belongs to, and inheres in, the people of an
organized political community. It is an attribute of the _whole people_
of such a community. It includes the power and necessarily the duty of
protecting the rights and redressing the wrongs of individuals, of
punishing crimes, enforcing contracts, prescribing rules for the
transfer of property and the succession of estates, making treaties with
foreign powers, levying taxes, etc. The enumeration of particulars might
be extended, but these will suffice as illustrations.
These powers are of course exercised through the agency of governments,
but the governments are _only_ agents of the sovereign--responsible to
it, and subject to its control. This sovereign--the people, in the
aggregate, of each political community--delegates to the government the
exercise of such powers, or functions, as it thinks proper, but in an
American republic never transfers or surrenders sovereignty. _That_
remains, unalienated and unimpaired. It is by virtue of this sovereignty
alone that the Government, its authorized agent, commands the obedience
of the individual citizen, to the extent of its derivative, dependent,
and delegated authority.
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