The Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions

Frederick Grimke

Published by Harvard University Press 1968

The Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions

Frederick Grimke

Edited by: John William Ward

Volume 4 in the series The John Harvard Library

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674284067

Overview
Contents

About this book

First published in 1848, Frederick Grimke's book, in the words of the editor, "deserves comparison with Tocqueville's justly famous work, Democracy in America, and is in certain ways superior. It is the single best book written by an American in the nineteenth century on the meaning of our political way of life." A second edition of Grimke's work was published in 1856, and a third edition appeared posthumously in 1871, but since then this classic in American thought has been almost completely lost to sight.

Grimke was born in South Carolina in 1791, and later moved to Ohio where he became a judge. He remained a bachelor, led a rich and cosmopolitan intellectual life, and accumulated an excellent library. His sisters Angelina (wife of the abolitionist Theodore Weld) and Sarah were both famous for deserting their South Carolina heritage and becoming active in the abolition and woman suffrage movements. In 1842 Grimke retired from the bench to devote the remainder of his life to study and writing, setting himself the task of educating his contemporaries in the nature of their society. His major achievement was The Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions.

Grimke's range of topics includes the right of the majority, the character and operation of elective governments, the function of political parties, the American contrasted with the English and French constitutions, and the separation of powers in the American political systems. He sees governmental institutions as the expression of the general structure of society which calls them into being. In his Introduction, Mr. Ward points to Grimke's thesis "that the separation of powers in the frame of the American constitution works not because power is distributed within the government but because all branches of the government are, directly or indirectly, responsible to the will of the majority of the people outside the doors of government." As a result of the party system, Grimke wrote, "we may vary the paraphernalia of government as much as we please, but it still obstinately persists in every one of its departments to be a government based upon the popular will."

Mr. Ward calls attention to Grimke's passionate belief that "freedom is its own justification" and that its ultimate value is that "it created the kind of character which made freedom possible." He held that "the only way to make a man fit for freedom is to give him freedom." Yet, unlike his sisters, he shared a view of race that was pervasive in his time and was unable to imagine the extension of freedom to the slave. In contradiction to his views of government and freedom, he upheld Negro slavery even to the extent of sanctioning secession to protect it. To him, "the open affirmation of the right of secession would serve to maintain the Union, not destroy it."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction by John William Ward Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
A NOTE ON THE TEXT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
THE NATURE AND TENDENCY OF FREE INSTITUTIONS
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
BOOK ONE
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
CHAPTER II GENERAL VIEWS AND DIFFICULTIES OF THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
CHAPTER III THE FOUNDATION OF GOVERNMENT, AND RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
CHAPTER IV CHARACTER AND OPERATION OF ELECTIVE GOVERNMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
CHAPTER V THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY — TO WHAT EXTENT CAN IT BE CARRIED Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
CHAPTER VI THE ELECTORAL FRANCHISE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
CHAPTER VII THE ELECTION OF THE PUBLIC OFFICERS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
CHAPTER VIII PARTIES —THE OFFICE THEY FULFILL IN A REPUBLIC Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
CHAPTER IX A REPUBLIC IS ESSENTIALLY A GOVERNMENT OF RESTRAINT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
BOOK TWO
CHAPTER I WRITTEN CONSTITUTIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
CHAPTER II THAT IN A REPUBLIC THE GOVERNORS AND THE GOVERNED ARE IDENTICAL AND DIFFERENT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
CHAPTER III SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE — IMPORT OF THE PHRASE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
CHAPTER IV POLITICAL TOLERATION — IS IT PRACTICABLE? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	252
CHAPTER V MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
CHAPTER VI NOTICE OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	266
CHAPTER VII THE LEGISLATIVE POWER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
BOOK THREE
CHAPTER I RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	341
CHAPTER II INSTITUTIONS FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	359
CHAPTER III MILITARY INSTITUTIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	377
CHAPTER IV INSTITUTION OF THE PRESS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	396
CHAPTER V ARISTOCRATICAL INSTITUTIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	404
CHAPTER VI THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	417
CHAPTER VII THE JUDICIAL POWER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	438
BOOK IV
CHAPTER I ON WHAT IN AMERICA IS SOMETIMES TERMED THE VETO POWER OF THE STATES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	477
CHAPTER II THE RIGHT OF SECESSION IN THE CONFEDERATE FORM OF GOVERNMENT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	503
CHAPTER III THE EXECUTIVE POWER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	518
CHAPTER IV THE CLASSES OF SOCIETY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	572
CHAPTER V NOTICE OF THE FRENCH CONSTITUTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	609
CHAPTER VI IS THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT A BALANCED ONE? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	627
CHAPTER VII THE INFLUENCE OF AMERICA UPON EUROPE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	641
CHAPTER VIII ULTIMATE DESTINY OF FREE INSTITUTIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	672
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	697
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	707

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Copyright year: 1968
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 6
- Main content: 705
Keywords: Political science.; Constitutional law.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / General

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674284067

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1968
ISBN: 9780674284050

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The Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions