laws beyond the national territory would be a trespasser. If the
limits are undetermined, the government is not territorial, and
can claim as within its jurisdiction only those who choose to
acknowledge its authority. The importance of the question has
been recently brought home to the American people by the
secession of eleven or more States from the Union. Were these
States a part of the American nation, or were they not? Was the
war which followed secession, and which cost so many lives and so
much treasure, a civil war or a foreign war? Were the
secessionists traitors and rebels to their sovereign, or were
they patriots fighting for the liberty and independence of their
country and the right of self-government? All on both sides
agreed that the nation is sovereign; the dispute was as to the
existence of the nation itself, and the extent of its
jurisdiction. Doubtless, when a nation has a generally
recognized existence as an historical fact, most of the
difficulties in determining who are the sovereign people can be
got over; but the question here concerns the institution of
government, and determining who constitute society and have the
right to meet in person, or by their delegates in convention,
to institute it. This question, so important, and at times so
difficult, the theory of the origin of government in the people
collectively, or the nation, does not solve, or furnish any means
of solving.

But suppose this difficulty surmounted there is still another,
and a very grave one, to overcome. The theory assumes that the
people collectively, "in their own native right and might," are
sovereign. According to it the people are ultimate, and free to
do whatever they please. This sacrifices individual freedom.