The Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions / / Frederick Grimke; ed. by John William Ward.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP e-dition: American History eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Grimke, Frederick,
• HerausgeberIn: Ward, John William,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2013]; ©1968
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Edition: Reprint 2014
• Language: English
• Series: The John Harvard Library ; 4
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (705 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; Introduction by John William Ward --; A NOTE ON THE TEXT --; THE NATURE AND TENDENCY OF FREE INSTITUTIONS --; PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION --; BOOK ONE --; CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY --; CHAPTER II GENERAL VIEWS AND DIFFICULTIES OF THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT --; CHAPTER III THE FOUNDATION OF GOVERNMENT, AND RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE --; CHAPTER IV CHARACTER AND OPERATION OF ELECTIVE GOVERNMENTS --; CHAPTER V THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY — TO WHAT EXTENT CAN IT BE CARRIED --; CHAPTER VI THE ELECTORAL FRANCHISE --; CHAPTER VII THE ELECTION OF THE PUBLIC OFFICERS --; CHAPTER VIII PARTIES —THE OFFICE THEY FULFILL IN A REPUBLIC --; CHAPTER IX A REPUBLIC IS ESSENTIALLY A GOVERNMENT OF RESTRAINT --; BOOK TWO --; CHAPTER I WRITTEN CONSTITUTIONS --; CHAPTER II THAT IN A REPUBLIC THE GOVERNORS AND THE GOVERNED ARE IDENTICAL AND DIFFERENT --; CHAPTER III SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE — IMPORT OF THE PHRASE --; CHAPTER IV POLITICAL TOLERATION — IS IT PRACTICABLE? --; CHAPTER V MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT --; CHAPTER VI NOTICE OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION --; CHAPTER VII THE LEGISLATIVE POWER --; BOOK THREE --; CHAPTER I RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS --; CHAPTER II INSTITUTIONS FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE --; CHAPTER III MILITARY INSTITUTIONS --; CHAPTER IV INSTITUTION OF THE PRESS --; CHAPTER V ARISTOCRATICAL INSTITUTIONS --; CHAPTER VI THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY --; CHAPTER VII THE JUDICIAL POWER --; BOOK IV --; CHAPTER I ON WHAT IN AMERICA IS SOMETIMES TERMED THE VETO POWER OF THE STATES --; CHAPTER II THE RIGHT OF SECESSION IN THE CONFEDERATE FORM OF GOVERNMENT --; CHAPTER III THE EXECUTIVE POWER --; CHAPTER IV THE CLASSES OF SOCIETY --; CHAPTER V NOTICE OF THE FRENCH CONSTITUTION --; CHAPTER VI IS THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT A BALANCED ONE? --; CHAPTER VII THE INFLUENCE OF AMERICA UPON EUROPE --; CHAPTER VIII ULTIMATE DESTINY OF FREE INSTITUTIONS --; INDEX --; Backmatter
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780674284067; 9783110353464; 9783110353488; 9783110442212
• DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674284067
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Frederick Grimke; ed. by John William Ward.

First published in 1848, Frederick Grimke's book, in the words of the editor, "deserves comparison with Tocqueville's justly famous work, Democracy in America, and is in certain ways superior. It is the single best book written by an American in the nineteenth century on the meaning of our political way of life." A second edition of Grimke's work was published in 1856, and a third edition appeared posthumously in 1871, but since then this classic in American thought has been almost completely lost to sight. Grimke was born in South Carolina in 1791, and later moved to Ohio where he became a judge. He remained a bachelor, led a rich and cosmopolitan intellectual life, and accumulated an excellent library. His sisters Angelina (wife of the abolitionist Theodore Weld) and Sarah were both famous for deserting their South Carolina heritage and becoming active in the abolition and woman suffrage movements. In 1842 Grimke retired from the bench to devote the remainder of his life to study and writing, setting himself the task of educating his contemporaries in the nature of their society. His major achievement was The Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions. Grimke's range of topics includes the right of the majority, the character and operation of elective governments, the function of political parties, the American contrasted with the English and French constitutions, and the separation of powers in the American political systems. He sees governmental institutions as the expression of the general structure of society which calls them into being. In his Introduction, Mr. Ward points to Grimke's thesis "that the separation of powers in the frame of the American constitution works not because power is distributed within the government but because all branches of the government are, directly or indirectly, responsible to the will of the majority of the people outside the doors of government." As a result of the party system, Grimke wrote, "we may vary the paraphernalia of government as much as we please, but it still obstinately persists in every one of its departments to be a government based upon the popular will." Mr. Ward calls attention to Grimke's passionate belief that "freedom is its own justification" and that its ultimate value is that "it created the kind of character which made freedom possible." He held that "the only way to make a man fit for freedom is to give him freedom." Yet, unlike his sisters, he shared a view of race that was pervasive in his time and was unable to imagine the extension of freedom to the slave. In contradiction to his views of government and freedom, he upheld Negro slavery even to the extent of sanctioning secession to protect it. To him, "the open affirmation of the right of secession would serve to maintain the Union, not destroy it."