Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Vermont State Papers; Being a Collection of Records and Documents, Connected With the Assumption and Establishment of Government by the People of Vermont: Together With the Journal of the Council of Safety, the First Constitution, the Early Journals of the General Assembly, and the Laws From the Year 1779 to 1786, Inclusive
Tn general diffusion of intelligence constitutes the life of a free gov crament. Upon every department of such a government the mic exert an unremitted in?uence, and stamp on all its measures the impress of their own character. Called upon to act, they should become accustomed to think and though they cannot, ordinarily, possess extended and com prehensive views of other systems of government, they should, at least, understand their own. The whole science of government consists in a knowledge of the practical operation of principles. With the science, thus understood, the citizens of every free government owe it to themselves and their posterity to become familiarly acquainted. The preservation of their political institutions depends, under Divine Providence, on them selves. Those institutions therefore, - thcir origin, their nature, their practical operation, and their whole history, should be studied and un derstood. The man who contemplates the subject in this light, will sit down to the examination of the successive constitutions and laws of a gov ernment, with a far higher aim than the gratification of an idle curiosity. By tracing them to their origin, and pursuing them through their various modifications, he will furnish himself with the best means of understanding the nature and practical tendency of existing institutions. Every govern ment, therefore, should possess, and should place within the reach of the people, a complete history of its own legislation. 'vithout the possession of such a history, and a practical regard to the lessons it inculcates, legis lation will be, at best, but a succession of experiments, and, as a necessary consequence, every operation of government will be characterised with ih stability and want of wisdom.
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