he is
obliged to pay. By stealing, he forfeits his liberty, and may be justly
imprisoned. By committing murder, he forfeits his right to life, and may
be hanged.
Sec.4. Rights are also called personal, political, civil, and religious.
_Personal rights_, or the _rights of persons_, are rights belonging to
persons as individuals, and consist of the right of _personal security_,
or the right to be secure from injury to our bodies, or persons, or our
good names; the right of _personal liberty_, or the liberty of moving,
acting, or speaking without unjust restraint; and the _right of
property_, or the right to acquire and enjoy property. The terms
_rights of person_ and _rights of persons_, or _personal rights_, have
not the same meaning. The rights of person, as the term is generally
used, does not include the right of property; personal rights include
both the right of property and the rights of person.
Sec.5. _Political rights_ are those which belong to the people in their
political capacity. The word _political_, in a general sense, relates to
government. The whole body of the people united under one government, is
called the political body, or body politic. The right of the people to
choose and establish for themselves a form of government, or
constitution, and the right to elect persons to make and execute the
laws, are political rights. The right of voting at elections is
therefore a political right.
Sec.6. _Civil rights_ are those which are secured to the citizens by the
laws of the state. Some make no distinction between civil rights and
political rights. In a proper sense--that in which the terms are here
used--there is this difference: political rights are those secured by
the political or fundamental law, called the constitution; civil rights
are more properly those which are secured by the civil or municipal
laws. The difference will more clearly appear from the definition
elsewhere given of the political and civil laws. (Chap. III. Sec.5, 6.)
Sec.7. _Religious rights_ consist in the right of a man to make known and
maintain his religious opinions, and to worship God in that way and
manner which he believes in his conscience to be most acceptable to his
Maker. This right is called also the _right of conscience_. But in
exercising this right, a man may not abuse it by violating the rights of
others, or disturbing the peace and order of society.
Sec.8. Now, although human rights are thus divided into cl
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