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Principles ofGrovemment. 403
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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and just ; neither can any one be commissioned to defeat this native freedom ; neither will any human decree whatsoever alter the natural equality among men , or make man -other than he is ;—and since to ordain a thing' repugnant to truth is the
simul est cum mente divina . Cic . which begun not then only to exist when revealed as such , but from the very time when the divine bounty first beg-un to exert itself towards him ; and this begun at one and the same time with the decreed beneficence of God to the sons of Adam . To this you object , that u a man may part with his
natural rights , because such natural rights are every man ' s own , and no other ' s property . " I reply that this proposition has never yet been proved ; but if it were even true , that every man ' s natural rig-hts are his own property , and such as he may relinquish personally , and for himself , yet he cannot relinquish them for posterity :
and to relinquish them at all is in effect , at least as far as we are able , to give away what belongs to posterity ; and experience and history shew us ^ that , by tame surrenders of this kind , posterity is usually enslaved ; and where otherwise , that we may however embarrass and distress posterity with such difficulties in the
recovery of their native rights and prerogatives , by us so sordidly conceded , as import the highest degree of injustice done them . It may be presumed ^ that to part with the prerogatives given us by God , is an act injurious to his divine bounty , affrontive to bis majesty , and such as may obstruct his great , generous and secret
purposes in us 5 but it is known that , in condescending thus , we hurt posterity as superlatively as we possibly can , for the natural gifts of God are more valuable than all other goods , potior metallis libertas . Hor . Liberty is preferable to riches . Also , posterity being daily born , such injury becomes daily multiplied , repeated , diffused , exaggerated .
In short , ( for this point is only a corollary in my dispute with you , I can no longer dwell upon it ) unjust laws continued , Jbeing a continued act of injustice , must amass vast guilt by continuance , and prove a crying curse in the court of heaven , not only against those who instituted them , but also against those whose duty it is to have them abolished . And
ev ^ ry legislatu re must blind sees ttot this truth bo evidently as to be animated with all zeal , indignation , expedition and resolution , to erase such laws at all events and hazards , as abhorrent to the will of God , ( winch is tbe one true law throughout the universe ) und detestable in his sight .
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same thing as to ordain that what is trne shall be false , and vice vers& , such absurdity must denote an extreme blindness and brutality in nowise better than a disqualifying madness . Also , intrusted power and
property , are only fiduciary , or to act for certain ends ; therefore whenever the end is manifestly opposed , or defeated , the trust is forfeited , void and insignificant . In this case , the power devolves into the hands that gave it ; for , the law of
self-preservation being unalienable , no oue can . have any right , even by donation , to defeat it . So soon as persons intrusted with power act against that trust , and by and according to their private wills and interests , they thereby degrade themselves , perhaps into debtors and criminals , at least into
single , private persons , without power , without command , and without any right to obedience : the members of a society owing no obedience immediately to any other than the public will of the society . Lib . II . i ^ n , xm .
That , AS TO RESISTANCE , Every intrusted power , when found to be no longer a remedy against the evils it was given to redress , but to be vainly increased without effecting its business , ought to be suppressed
by wise and good men . But much more ought every man ' s power to be suppressed who seeks his commodity with the injury of others , and is found to be aiming at interests separate from those of the individuals or members , who are his constituents . If it be a
part of civil society to prevent their constituents being injured , much more is it so- to prevent their being devoured . Therefore when men in trust have quitted their reason , and renounced
the way of peace which this teaches , they have revolted , from their own kind ,-to that of beasts , by making force to be their rule of right ; and are as liable to be destroyed as are other wild beasts , or noxious brutes , with whom mankind can have neither
society nor security . JLib . II . Ch . xv . That , AS TO WAR AND CONQUEST , As voluntary agreement gives a political power , and constitutes the condition of a free people , so a just forfeiture , by a state of war unjustly
Principles Ofgrovemment. 403
Principles ofGrovemment . 403
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 403, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/27/
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