Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, p. 695:
Government. From the Latin gubernaculums.
Signifies the instrument, the helm, whereby the ship to which the
state was compared, was guided on its course by the “gubernator”
or helmsman, and in that view, the government is but an agency of
the state, distinguished as it must be in accurate thought from
its scheme and machinery of government.
"In the United States, government consists of the executive,
legislative, and judicial branches in addition to administrative
agencies. In a broader sense, includes the federal government
and all its agencies and bureaus, state and county governments,
and city and township governments.
"The system of polity in a state; that form of fundamental rules
and principles which a national or state is governed, or by which
individual members of a body politic are to regulate their social
actions. A constitution, either written or unwritten, by which
the rights and duties of citizens and public officers are prescribed
and defined, as a monarchical government, a republican government,
etc. The machinery by which the sovereign power in a state
expresses its will and exercises its functions; or the framework
of political institutions, departments, and offices, by means of
which the executive, judicial, legislative, and administrative business
of the state is carried on.
The whole class or body of officeholders or functionaries considered
in the aggregate, upon whom devolves the executive, judicial, legislative,
and administrative business of the state.
In a colloquial sense, the United States or its representatives,
considered as the prosecutor in a criminal action; as in the phrase,
“the government objects to the witness.”
The regulation, restrain, supervision, or control which is exercised
upon the individual members of an organized jural society by those
invested with authority; or the act of exercising supreme political
power or control.
See also De facto government; Federal government; Judiciary;
Legislature; Seat of government.
Federal government. The government of the United States
of America, as distinguished from the governments of the several
states.
Local government. The government or administration of a
particular locality, especially, the governmental authority of a
municipal corporation, as a city or county, over its local and individual
affairs, exercised in virtue of power delegated to it for that purpose
by the general government of the state or nation.
Mixed government. A form of government combining some of
the features of two or all of the three primary forms, viz., monarchy,
aristocracy, and democracy.
Republican government. One in which the powers of sovereignty
are vested in the people and are exercised by the people, either
directly, or through representatives chosen by the people, to whom
those powers are specially delegated. In re Duncan, 139 U.S.
449, 11 S.Ct. 573, 36 L.Ed. 219; Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. (21
Wall.) 162, 22 L.Ed. 627."
[Black’s Law Dictionary Sixth Edition, p. 695]
"In the discussion of such questions, the distinction between the government of a State and the State itself is important, and should be observed. In common speech and common apprehension they are usually regarded as identical; and as ordinarily the acts of the government are the acts of the State, because within the limits of its delegation of power, the government of the State is generally confounded with the State itself, and often the former is meant when the latter is mentioned. The State itself is an ideal person, intangible, invisible, immutable. The government is an agent, and, within the sphere of the agency, a perfect representative; but outside of that, it is a lawless usurpation. The Constitution of the State is the limit of the authority of its government, and both government and State are subject to the supremacy of the Constitution of the United States, and of the laws made in pursuance thereof. So that, while it is true in respect to the government of a State, as was said in Langford v. United States, 101 U.S. 341, that the maxim, that the king can do no wrong, has no place in our system of government; yet, it is also true, in respect to the State itself, that whatever wrong is attempted in its name is imputable to its government, and not to the State, for, as it can speak and act only by law, whatever it does say and do must be lawful. That which, therefore, is unlawful because made so by the supreme law, the Constitution of the United States, is not the word or deed of the State, but is the mere wrong and trespass of those individual persons who falsely speak and act in its name. It was upon the ground of this important distinction that this court proceeded in the case of Texas v. White, 7 Wall. 700, when it adjudged that the acts of secession, which constituted the civil war of 1861, were the unlawful acts of usurping State governments, and not the acts of the States themselves, inasmuch as "the Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States;" and that, consequently, the war itself was not a war between the States, nor a war of the United States against States, but a war of the United States against 291*291 unlawful and usurping governments, representing not the States, but a rebellion against the United States. This is, in substance, what was said by Chief Justice Chase, delivering the opinion of the court in Thorington v. Smith, 8 Wall. 1, 9, when he declared, speaking of the Confederate government, that "it was regarded as simply the military representative of the insurrection against the authority of the United States." The same distinction was declared and enforced in Williams v. Bruffy, 96 U.S. 176, 192, and in Horn v. Lockhart, 17 Wall. 570, both of which were referred to and approved in Keith v. Clark, 97 U.S. 454, 465."
[Poindexter v. Greenhow, 114 U.S. 270, 5 S.Ct. 903 (1885)]
44 Cong.Rec. 4959 (1909)
“M. Thiers, the great French statesman, says, ‘a tax paid by
a citizen to his government is like a premium paid by the insured
to the insurance company, and should be in proportion to the amount
of property insured in one case and the other to the amount of property
protected or defended [or managed] by the government.’”
[44 Cong.Rec. 4959 (1909)]
38 Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S. ) Legal Encyclopedia]
"...'government'
has been defined as a body politic, a state; a corporate entity through
which the people act; a fictitious entity created by the people..."
[38 Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S. ) [Legal Encyclopedia]]
Wealth of Nations, book V, Adam Smith, pp. 468-473, (1776); Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, 1991
“The first duty of the
sovereign is, that of protecting the society from the violence and invasion
of other independent societies…The second duty of the sovereign is,
that of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society
from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it… The third
duty and last duty of the sovereign or commonwealth is that of erecting
and maintaining those public institutions and those public works, which,
though they may be in the highest degree advantageous to a great society…”
[Adam Smith, Wealth
of Nations, book V, pp. 468-473, (1776); Prometheus Books, Amherst,
New York, 1991]
The 23rd Psalm (A present-day Lamentation)
The politician is my
shepherd...I am in want;
He maketh me to lie down on park benches,
He leadeth me beside still factories;
He disturbeth my soul.
Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of depression
and recession,
I anticipate no recovery, for he is with me.
He prepareth a reduction in my salary in the presence of my enemies;
He anointeth my small income with great losses;
My expenses
runneth over.
Surely unemployment and poverty shall follow me all
the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in a mortgaged house forever.
(What happens when we
make our government our God)
[The 23rd Psalm
(A present-day Lamentation)]
Noah Webster
"Good
intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority.
It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard
the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in
all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern.
They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
[Noah Webster]
IRS Humbug, ISBN 0-9626552-0-1, 1991, Universalistic Publishers, p. 15
The primary
function of government "...is to render security to its subjects.
And any mischief menacing that security demands a remedy commensurate
with the evil." This was a quote from State v. Gaynor, 119
N.J.L. 582; 198 A.837, used by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lanzetta v.
New Jersey, 306 U.S. 451, 455 (1938). It is in tune with what
John Locke (1632-1704) said was the only purpose of establishing governments:
"If a man in the state of Nature is so free, as has been said; if
he be absolute Lord of his own Person and Possessions, equal to the
greatest and subject to no Body, why will he part with his Freedom?
Why will he give up his Empire, and subject himself to the Dominion
the Control of any other Power? To which 'tis obvious to answer,
that though in state of Nature he hath such a Right, yet the Enjoyment
of it is very uncertain, and constantly exposed to the Invasion of others...The
great and chief end therefore, of Men's uniting into Commonwealths,
and putting themselves under Government, is the preservation of their
property."
[IRS
Humbug, ISBN 0-9626552-0-1, 1991, Universalistic Publishers, p. 15]
TITLE 26 >
Subtitle A >
CHAPTER 1 >
Subchapter N >
PART II >
Subpart D > § 892
§ 892. Income of foreign governments and of international organizations
(a)
Foreign governments
(3) Treatment as resident
For purposes of this title, a
foreign government shall be treated as a corporate resident of its
country. A foreign government shall be so treated for purposes
of any income tax treaty obligation of the United States if such
government grants equivalent treatment to the Government of the
United States.
City of Dallas v. Mitchell, 245 S.W.
944, 945-46 (Tex.Civ.App.-Dallas 1922):
“The rights of the individual are not
derived from governmental agencies, either municipal, state or federal,
or even from the Constitution. They exist inherently in every man,
by endowment of the Creator, and are merely reaffirmed in the Constitution,
and restricted only to the extent that they have been voluntarily
surrendered by the citizenship to the agencies of government. The
people's rights are not derived from the government, but the government's
authority comes from the people. The Constitution but states again
these rights already existing, and when legislative encroachment
by the nation, state, or municipality invade these original and
permanent rights, it is the duty of the courts to so declare, and
to afford the necessary relief. The fewer restrictions that surround
the individual liberties of the citizen, except those for the preservation
of the public health, safety, and morals, the more contented the
people and the more successful the democracy.”
[City of Dallas v. Mitchell, 245 S.W.
944, 945-46 (Tex.Civ.App.-Dallas 1922)]
Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2, 125 (1866):
“This nation, as experience has proved,
cannot always remain at peace, and has no right to expect that it
will always have wise and humane rulers, sincerely attached to the
principles of the Constitution.
Wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt
of law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln;
and if this right is conceded, and the calamities of war again befall
us, the dangers to human liberty are frightful to contemplate. If
our fathers had failed to provide for just such a contingency, they
would have been false to the trust reposed in them. They knew —
the history of the world told them — the nation they were founding,
be its existence short or long, would be involved in war; how often
or how long continued, human foresight could not tell; and that
unlimited power, wherever lodged at such a time, was especially
hazardous to freemen. For this, and other equally weighty reasons,
they secured the inheritance they had fought to maintain, by incorporating
in a written constitution the safeguards which time had proved were
essential to its preservation. Not one of these safeguards can the
President, or Congress, or the Judiciary disturb, except the one
concerning the writ of habeas corpus.”
[Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2, 125 (1866)]
"Corporations are also
of all grades, and made for varied objects; all governments are
corporations, created by usage and common consent, or grants and charters
which create a body politic for prescribed purposes; but whether they
are private, local or general, in their objects, for the enjoyment of
property, or the exercise of power, they are all governed by the same
rules of law, as to the construction and the obligation of the instrument
by which the incorporation is made. One universal rule of law protects
persons and property. It is a fundamental principle of the common
law of England, that the term freemen of the kingdom, includes 'all
persons,' ecclesiastical and temporal, incorporate, politique or natural;
it is a part of their magna charta (2 Inst. 4), and is incorporated
into our institutions. The persons of the members of corporations are
on the same footing of protection as other persons, and their corporate
property secured by the same laws which protect that of individuals.
2 Inst. 46-7. 'No man shall be taken,' 'no man shall be disseised,'
without due process of law, is a principle taken from magna charta,
infused into all our state constitutions, and is made inviolable by
the federal government, by the amendments to the constitution."
[Proprietors
of Charles River Bridge v. Proprieters of, 36 U.S. 420 (1837) ]
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