e people are the population or inhabitants of one and
the same country. That is something. But who or what determines the
country? Is the country the whole territory of the globe? That will
not be said, especially since the dispersion of mankind and their
division into separate nations. Is the territory indefinite or
undefined? Then indefinite or undefined are its inhabitants, or the
people invested with the rights of society. Is it defined and its
boundaries fixed? Who has done it? The people. But who are the
people? We are as wise as we were at starting. The logicians say that
the definition of idem per idem, or the same by the same, is simply no
definition at all.

The people are the nation, undoubtedly, if you mean by the people the
sovereign people. But who are the people constituting the nation? The
sovereign people? This is only to revolve in a vicious circle. The
nation is the tribe or the people living under the same regimen, and
born of the same ancestor, or sprung from the same ancestor or
progenitor. But where find a nation in this the primitive sense of the
word? Migration, conquest, and intermarriage, have so broken up and
intermingled the primitive races, that it is more than doubtful if a
single nation, tribe, or family of unmixed blood now exists on the face
of the earth. A Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, German, or Englishman,
may have the blood of a hundred different races coursing in his veins.
The nation is the people inhabiting the same country, and united under
one and the same government, it is further answered. The nation, then,
is not purely personal, but also territorial. Then, again, the question
comes up, who or what determines the territory? The government? But
not before it is constituted, and it cannot be constituted till its
territorial limits are determined. The tribe doubtless occupies
territory, but is not fixed to it, and derives no jurisdiction from it,
and therefore is not territorial. But a nation, in the modern or
civilized sense, is fixed to the territory, and derives from it its
jurisdiction, or sovereignty; and, therefore, till the territory is
determined, the nation is not and cannot be determined.

The question is not an idle question. It is one of great practical
importance; for, till it is settled, we can neither determine who are
the sovereign people, nor who are united under one and the same
government. Laws have no extra-territorial force, and the