Page:Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States.djvu/11

 political system, deduces government from a natural fate ; the policy of the United States deduces it from moral liberty. Every event preceeding from a motive, may, in a moral sense, be termed natural. And in this view, "natural" is a term, which will cover all human qualities. Lest, therefore, the terms "natural and moral" may not suggest a correct idea of the opposite principles, which have produced rival political systems, it is a primary object to ascertain the sense in which they are here used.

Man, we suppose to be compounded of two qualities, distinguishable from each other; matter and mind. By mind, we analyze the powers of matter; by matter we cannot analyze the powers of mind, flatter being an agent of inferior power to mind, its powers may be ascertained by mind but mind being an agent of sovereign power, there is no power able to limit its capacity. The subject cannot be an adequate menstruum for its own solution. Therefore, as we cannot analyze mind, it is generally allowed to be a supernatural quality.

To the human agencies, arising from the mind's power of abstraction, we apply the term "moral;" to such as are the direct and immediate effect of matter, independent of abstraction, the terms "natural or physical." Should Mr. Adams disallow the application of this distinction to his theory, by saying, that when he speaks of natural political systems, he refers both to man's mental and physical powers,