ABSTRACT
Every association of men has for its object the promotion of common aims. But the association having been formed, the idea of obligation at once arises. Common interests have common duties as their correlative. The State is society in its most organised form. As soon as an association of men agrees to have its aims and its duties defined for it by a specially constituted authority, and to delegate to that authority the right of enforcing them—as soon, in other words, as it possesses laws and a government, however primitive and crude—it creates what is known as the State. The duty was clearly recognised by the Rabbins also, and again at a time when the Jew was living under the iron yoke of the foreigner. A direct means of discharging this duty is given him with the vote. The suffrage is a sacred trust, and the good citizen will so regard it.
