hich the Senator
has put it. If he asks of me as to a state of nature, without
being organized into any social or political community whatever,
then I answer yes, and every man is what the civil writers called
in old times a barbarian; and he is invested, upon his own
judgment and in his own right, with the power of defending and
affirming whatever natural rights he has against all comers,
exactly as a nation stands in respect to another nation; no man
has a right to impose upon him any restraint; no man has a right
to demand from him any concession; he is absolutely independent;
and when his rights or claims come in conflict with those of
anybody else he "fights it out" or runs away. So far, there is
natural right, no doubt, but I hope the Senator has not gone back
quite so far from the present condition of the world as to wish
to discuss questions of that kind. That is not what he means.
What he means by natural rights no doubt is what organized
communities recognize as things of natural right, and those are
things which are inherent in the person but are regulated and
limited and restrained according to the rights and necessities of
all the other persons in the community. In an organized society
the right of self-defense is not a natural right in the broad
sense, so that under all circumstances A B or C D has a right to
defend himself against all aggression. An officer may come to
arrest me on a warrant issued by a court irregularly. I have not
the right to slay the officer because he takes me on the
warrant. My place to resist is not by my natural force, not by
raising a mob, but by going to the court that issued the warrant
and showing that it had been issued contrary to law. And yet on
the Senator's notion every time a man is brought under the law,
if he does not agree with the law, his business is to fight. The
community can not get along in that way. There is no such right
as that in society.

Mr. STEWART: I ask the Senator what right, whether it be a
natural right or an acquired right, has one man to govern
another, or has society to govern the individual?

Mr. EDMUNDS: What right?

Mr. STEWART: Is it a natural or acquired right?

Mr. EDMUNDS: No man has a natural right to govern another, or an
acquired right, or a poli