Excerpt from The American Citizen's Manual, Vol. 2: The Functions of Governments (State and Federal) Government is instituted to give that protection to life and property which could not be obtained so ef ficiently by any other means and the whole powers of government are directed to this end. Thus the constitution of Alabama recites that the sole and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property; and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression (art. I, All men, say many of the State constitutions, are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essen tial, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, etc. These rights are protect cd by a general provision in the Federal Constitu tion No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. And so jealously is the liberty of the citizen guarded that the Constitution, as will be shown, expressly defines what is meant by due process of law. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.