II. It originates in convention, and is a social compact.
III. It originates in the people, who, collectively taken, are
sovereign.
IV. Government springs from the spontaneous development of nature.
V. It derives its right from the immediate and express
appointment of God;--
VI. From God through the Pope, or visible head of the spiritual
society;--
VII. From God through the people;--
VIII. From God through the natural law.

I. The first theory is sound, if the question is confined to the
origin of government as a fact. The patriarchal system is the
earliest known system of government, and unmistakable traces of
it are found in nearly all known governments--in the tribes of
Arabia and Northern Africa, the Irish septs and the Scottish
clans, the Tartar hordes, the Roman qentes, and the Russian and
Hindoo villages. The right of the father was held to be his
right to govern his family or household, which, with his children,
included his wife and servants. From the family to the tribe the
transition is natural and easy, as also from the tribe to the
nation. The father is chief of the family; the chief of the
eldest family is chief of the tribe; the chief of the eldest
tribe becomes chief of the nation, and, as such, king or monarch.
The heads of families collected in a senate form an aristocracy,
and the families themselves, represented by their delegates, or
publicly assembling for public affairs, constitute a democracy.
These three forms, with their several combinations, to wit,
monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, and mixed governments, are all
the forms known to Aristotle, and have generally been held to be