The Declaration of Independence says that ``governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.'' The phrase ``consent of the governed'' needs a hard look. How do we define it? Is the consent of the governed a numerical majority? Calhoun dealt with this question in his ``Disquisition on Government.''

To guard against the tyranny of a numerical majority, Calhoun developed his theory of ``concurrent majority,'' which, he said, ``by giving to each portion of the community which may be unequally affected by the action of government, a negative on the others, prevents all partial or local legislation.'' Who will say that our country is even now a homogeneous community? that regional peculiarities do not still exist? that the Court order does not unequally affect the Southern region? Who will deny that in a vast portion of the South the Federal action is incompatible with the Jeffersonian concept of ``the consent of the governed?''

Circumstances alter cases. A friend of mine in New Mexico said the Court order had caused no particular trouble out there, that all had gone as merry as a marriage bell. He seemed a little surprised that it should have caused any particular trouble anywhere. I murmured something about a possible difference between New Mexico's history and Mississippi's.

One can meet with aloofness almost anywhere: the Thank-Heaven-We're - not-Involved viewpoint, It Doesn't Affect Us! Southern Liberals (there are a good many) -- especially if they're rich -- often exhibit blithe insouciance. The trouble here is that it's almost too easy to take the high moral ground when it doesn't cost you anything. You've already sent your daughter to Miss X's select academy for girls and your son to Mr. Y's select academy for boys, and you can be as liberal as you please with strict impunity. If there's no suitable academy in your own neighborhood, there's always New England. New England academies welcome fugitives from the provinces, South as well as West. They may even enroll a colored student or two for show, though he usually turns out to be from Thailand, or any place other than the American South. It would be interesting to know how much ``integration'' there is in the famous, fashionable colleges and prep schools of New England. A recent newspaper report said there were five Negroes in the 1960 graduating class of nearly one thousand at Yale; that is, about one-half of one per cent, which looks pretty ``tokenish'' to me, especially in an institution which professes to be ``national.''