Ethics, also a dangerous one, because in exploring a new field he had to touch some of the most vital and delicate points. His life in the South, although uncongenial to him, was a period of rich production, and he became the author of the first great original treatise on political science in America. He had long occupied himself with the thought of writing on political ethics. He felt that the many subjects which have a strong influence on politics, and yet do not belong to political or legal science, should be treated soundly and truthfully. These subjects included the ethical nature of man, public opinion, parties, factions, opposition, love of truth, perseverance, the duty of representatives, judges, advocates, officeholders, and the pardoning power. The keynote of the Political Ethics is, "No right without its duties, no duty without its rights." The work called forth the warmest admiration of jurists, statesmen, and historians.
Lieber made another valuable contribution to political science in The Legal and Political Hermeneutics, published in 1839. One of the first articles which he read after landing in New York was in a paper opposed to the administration of President Adams. The writer founded his objections on the construction of the Constitution. The subject was new to Lieber, as political construction of this kind is peculiar to America, where the idea of a written constitution was first realized on a large scale. His attention was attracted by the novelty, and when he began his work on Political Ethics he was led to reflect more deeply on constitutional construction. The value of the work is stated in The Nation as follows: "Many of the topics discussed were at this time new, doubtful, and difficult, and Lieber lived to find conclusions which he had arrived at and was the first to express thirty years ago, referred to by writers of the present day as familiar political truths, without, perhaps, any conception on the part of the writers of the source whence they were derived." Lieber's best known work and greatest contribution to political science is his Civil Liberty and Self-Government, published in 1853. It was written during the vicissitudes of the French Government, and can not be read with profit without taking into view the events of 1848 and the empire of Napoleon III, for through the book there are drawn frequent contrasts between Anglican and Gallican liberty. The Civil Liberty and Self-Government at once attracted the attention of scholars. In 1854 Woolsey put the book into the hands of his pupils in Yale College. Professor Creasy, of England, author of the Rise and Progress of the British Constitution, said: "Dr. Lieber is the first who has pointed out the all-important principle of English and American liberty, that every officer remains individually responsible for what he does, no matter whether he acts under the order of his superiors or not—a principle wholly unknown in
