"The government" has always many things to do, and there are many different lights in which we might regard it. But for the present there is one thing which we need especially to keep in mind. "The government" is the power which can rightfully take away part of your property, in the shape of taxes, to be used for public purposes. A government is not worthy of the name, and cannot long be kept in existence, unless it can raise money by taxation, and use force, if necessary, in collecting its taxes. The only general government of the United States during the Revolutionary War, and for six years after its close, was the Continental Congress, which had no authority to raise money by taxation. In order to feed and clothe the army and pay its officers and soldiers, it was obliged to ask for money from the several states, and hardly ever got as much as was needed. It was obliged to borrow millions of dollars from France and Holland, and to issue promissory notes which soon became worthless. After the war was over it became clear that this so-called government could neither preserve order nor pay its debts, and accordingly it ceased to be respected either at home or abroad, and it became necessary for the American people to adopt a new form of government. Between the old Continental Congress and the government under which we have lived since 1789, the differences were many; but by far the most essential difference was that the new government could raise money by taxation, and was thus enabled properly to carry on the work of governing.

If we are in any doubt as to what is really the government of some particular country, we cannot do better than observe what person or persons in that country are clothed with authority to tax the people. Mere names, as customarily applied to governments, are apt to be deceptive. Thus in the middle of the eighteenth century France and England were both called "kingdoms"; but so far as kingly power was concerned, Louis XV was a very different sort of a king from George II. The French king could impose taxes on his people, and it might

therefore be truly said that the government of France was in the king. Indeed, it was Louis XV's immediate predecessor 1 who made the famous remark, "The state is myself." But the English king could not impose taxes; the only power in England that could do that was the House of Commons, and accordingly it is correct to say that in England, at the time of which we are speaking, the government was (as it still is) in the House of Commons.

I say, then, the most essential feature of a government or at any rate the feature with which it is most important for us to become familiar at the start — is its power of taxation. The government is that which taxes. If individuals take away some of your property for purposes of their own, it is robbery; you lose your money and get nothing in return. But if the government takes away some of your property in the shape of taxes, it is supposed to render to you an equivalent in the shape of good government, something without which our lives and property would not be safe. Herein seems to lie the difference between taxation and robbery. When the highwayman points his pistol at me and I hand him my purse and watch, I am robbed. But when I pay the taxcollector, who can seize my watch or sell my house over my head if I refuse, I am simply paying what is fairly due from me toward supporting the government.

LIBERTY IS RESPONSIBILITY, NOT LICENSE

WILLIAM MCKINLEY

[From an address at the dedication of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at Cleveland, Ohio, July 4, 1894. Mr. McKinley was then governor of Ohio. Two years later he was elected to the Presidency.]

1 Louis XIV, the Grand Monarch, who personally ruled France from 1661 until his death in 1715. That he addressed the words "L'État

c'est moi" to the President of the Parliament of Paris is a fairly well established tradition; that the famous dictum represents his belief and practice is a matter of history. (FISKE.)

SUCH monuments as these have another meaning, which is one dear to the hearts of many who stand by me. It is, as Mr. Lincoln said at Gettysburg, that the dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation's later birth of freedom and the people's gain of their own sovereignty shall not perish from the earth. That is what this monument means. That is the lesson of true patriotism, that what was won in war shall be worn in peace.

But we must not forget, my fellow countrymen, that the Union which these brave men preserved, and the liberties which they secured, places upon us, the living, the gravest responsibility. We are the freest government on the face of the earth. Our strength rests in our patriotism. Peace and order and security and liberty are safe so long as love of country burns in the hearts of the people. It should not be forgotten, however, that liberty does not mean lawlessness. Liberty to make our own laws does not give us license to break them. Liberty to make our own laws commands a duty to observe them ourselves and enforce obedience among all others within their jurisdiction. Liberty, my fellow citizens, is responsibility, and responsibility is duty, and that duty is to preserve the exceptional liberty we enjoy within the law and for the law and by the law.

EDUCATED MEN AND POLITICS

GROVER CLEVELAND

[From an address at Princeton, New Jersey, in 1896, at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the charter of the College of New Jersey. On this date the college formally became Princeton University.. Mr. Cleveland was then near the end of his second presidential term, and was soon to take up his residence in Princeton.]

I HASTEN to concede the good already accomplished by our educated men in purifying and steadying political sentiment; but I hope I may be allowed to intimate my belief that their

work in these directions would be easier and more useful if it were less spasmodic and occasional. The disposition of our people is such that while they may be inclined to distrust those who only on rare occasions come among them from a seclusion savoring of assumed superiority, they readily listen to those who exhibit a real fellowship and a friendly and habitual interest in all that concerns the common welfare. Such a condition of intimacy would, I believe, not only improve the general political atmosphere, but would vastly increase the influence of our universities and colleges in their efforts to prevent popular delusions or correct them before they reach an acute and dangerous stage.

I am certain, therefore, that a more constant and active participation in political affairs on the part of our men of education would be of the greatest possible value to our country.

It is exceedingly unfortunate that politics should be regarded in any quarter as an unclean thing, to be avoided by those claiming to be educated or respectable. It would be strange indeed if anything related to the administration of our government or the welfare of our nation should be essentially degrading. I believe it is not a superstitious sentiment that leads to the conviction that God has watched over our national life from its beginning. Who will say that things worthy of God's regard and fostering care are unworthy of the touch of the wisest and best of men?

I would have those sent out by our universities and colleges not only the counselors of their fellow-countrymen, but the tribunes of the people - fully appreciating every condition that presses upon their daily life, sympathetic in every outward situation, quick and earnest in every effort to advance their happiness and welfare, and prompt and sturdy in the defence of all their rights.

I have but imperfectly expressed the thoughts to which I have not been able to deny utterance on an occasion so full of glad significance and so pervaded by the atmosphere of

patriotic aspiration. Born of these surroundings, the hope cannot be vain that the time is at hand when all our countrymen will more deeply appreciate the blessings of American citizenship, when their disinterested love of their government will be quickened, when fanaticism and passion shall be banished from the fields of politics, and when all our people, discarding every difference of condition or opportunity, shall be seen under the banner of American brotherhood, marching steadily and unfalteringly on toward the bright heights of our national destiny.

THE NEW RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BAR

ELIHU ROOT

[From an address in New York City at the annual dinner of the New York Bar Association on January 15, 1916. Mr. Root had recently retired from the United States Senate and had just resumed the practice of law in New York City. This speech was delivered with the great European war in the mind of everybody present.]

WE are no longer isolated. The ever flowing stream of ocean which surrounds us is no longer a barrier. We have grown so great, the bonds that unite us in trade, in influence, in power, with the rest of the world, have become so strong and compelling that we cannot live unto ourselves alone.

New questions loom up in the horizon which must be met; questions upon which we have little or no precedent to guide us; questions upon the right determination of which the peace and prosperity of our country will depend. Those questions can be met only by a nation worthy to deal with them. They can be met by a democracy only as it is prepared for the performance of its duty. . . .

How are we to meet the future, and what is the responsibility of the bar, that is the guardian of American law, toward meeting that future? It is not a matter of opportunism; it is not a matter of temporary expedient. The situation cannot