94 T H E C R A T E R ; nearest and dearest to him, society had a security for his doing much, that would be wanting where the proceeds of the entire community were to be shared in common; and, on the knowledge of this simple and obvious truth, did our young legislator found his theory of <nm n;ment Protect all in their rights equally, but, that done, let every man pursue his road to happiness in his own way ; con ceding no more of his natural rights than were necessary to the great ends of peace, security, and Jaw. Such was Mark s theory. As for the modern crotchet that men yielded no natural right to government, but were to receive all and return nothing, the governor, in plain language, was not fool enough to believe it. He was perfectly aware that when a man gives authority to society to compel him to attend court as a witness, for instance, he yields just so much of his natural rights to society, as might be necessary to empower him to stay away, if he saw fit; and, so on, through the whole of the very long catalogue of the claims which the most indulgent communities make upon the ser vices of their citizens. Mark understood the great deside ratum to be, not the setting up of theories to which every attendant fact gives the lie, but the ascertaining, as near as human infirmity will allow, the precise point at which con cession to government ought to terminate, and that of uncon trolled individual freedom commence. He was not visionary enough to suppose that he was to be the first to make this great discovery ; but he was conscious of entering on the task with the purest intentions. Our governor had no relish for power for power s sake, but only wielded it for the general good. By nature, he was more disposed to seek happiness in a very small circle, and would have been just as well satisfied to let another govern, as to rule him self, had there been another suited to such a station. But there was not. His own early habits of command, the peculiar circumstances which had first put him in posses sion of the territory, as if it were a special gift of Provi dence to himself, his past agency in bringing about the actual state of things, and his property, which amounted to more than that of all the rest of the colony put together, contributed to give him a title and authority to rule, which would have set the claims of any rival at defiance, had such
