' This supposes the
Norman usurpations to be rights in his successors. And again, (C. 159,)
'the Commons established a principle, which is noble in itself, and
seems specious, but is belied by all history and experience, that the
people are the origin of all just power.' And where else will this
degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow-men, find the
origin of just powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will it be
in the minority? Or in an individual of that minority?
Our revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It presented us an
album on which we were free to write what we pleased. We had no occasion
to search into musty records, to hunt up royal parchments, or to
investigate the laws and institutions of a semi-barbarous ancestry. We
appealed to those of nature, and found them engraved on our hearts. Yet
we did not avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position. We had
never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced to assume
it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had entered
little into our former education. We established however some, although
not all its important principles. The constitutions of most of our
States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may
exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves
competent (as in electing their functionaries, executive and
legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all
judiciary cases in which any fact is involved), or they may act by
representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and
duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of
person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the
press.
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