The Government Class Book - Designed for the Instruction of Youth in the Principles - of Constitutional Government and the Rights and Duties of - Citizens. by Andrew W. Young
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page 28 of 460 (06%)
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each is bound by the principles of natural justice to render to others
that assistance which is necessary to make them as happy as himself, or which they justly owe to him in return. §4. The _moral law_ is that which prescribes to men their duties to God and to each other. As a rule of human conduct therefore, it corresponds exactly to the law of nature. The moral law is briefly expressed in the decalogue or ten commandments, and is still more briefly summed up in the two great commandments, to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. God being its author, it is called the _divine law_; and, being found in the Holy Scriptures, in which his will is revealed to mankind, it is called the _revealed law_, or _law of revelation_. §5. _Political law_, as has been observed, is that system or form of fundamental rules, called the constitution, by which the people in their political capacity, or as a body politic, agree to be governed. The nature of this law will more clearly appear from a more particular definition of constitution, and from a description of the manner in which a constitution is made. (Chap. V.) §6. The word _municipal_ was used by the Romans to designate that which related to a _municipium_, which was a free town, or city. The rights of a citizen of such free city or town were called _municipal rights_, and its officers were called _municipal officers_. In this country, the word is not only used in this limited sense, but is extended to what pertains to a state. Hence the body of laws which prescribe the duties of the citizens of a state, are called the _municipal_ or _civil law_. And the term is used to distinguish the laws made by the legislature, or law-making power of the state, from the constitution, or political law, |
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