ABSTRACT
The first requisite of social order is that people shall not molest one another in person or property. The second requisite is that responsibilities, whether incurred by way of nature, as those of the family, or by promise, as those of contract, shall be duly met. The law, therefore, the most specialized and highly finished engine of control employed by society, has a double task. The punishments of a social, moral, or religious character that follow in the train of legal guilt are not to be counted as legal sanctions, being neither allowed for nor inflicted by the officers of the law. The futility of passing laws far in advance of public sentiment is more striking in America than anywhere else. The power that compels obedience to law in America has arisen not from conqueror or superior class, but from the massed forces of common men.
