REASONS: I. Because the foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people. II. Because, by a free choice, the hearts of the people will be more inclined to the love of the persons (chosen) and more, ready to yield obedience. ROGER WILLIAMS [1644] The first Baptist leader in America. Founder of Rhode "Bloudy Tenent of Persecution" Hanserd Soc. Reprint Ch. 92. The sovereign, original and foundation of civil power lies in the people; whom they must needs mean by "the civil power" distinct from the government set up; and if so, that a people may erect and establish what form of government seems to them most meet for their civil condition. It is evident that such governments as are by them erected and established have no more power, nor for no longer time, than the civil power or people, consenting and agreeing, shall betrust them with. That is clear not only in reason but in the experience of all commonwealths, where the people are not deprived of their natural freedom by the power of tyrants. Civil magistrates, whether kings or parliaments, states and governors, can receive no more in justice than what the people give, and are, therefore, but the eyes and hands and instruments of the people. GOVERNOR JOHN WINTHROP [1645] First Governor of Massachusetts. James Savage, Ed., John Winthrop's History of New England, from 1630 to 1649. Boston, 1826, II. 228-229 passim. The great questions that have troubled the country, are about the authority of the magistrates and the liberty of the people. It is yourselves who have called us to this office, and being called by you, we have our authority from God, in way of an ordinance, such as hath the image of God eminently stamped upon it, the contempt and violation whereof hath been vindicated with examples of divine vengeance. I entreat you to consider, that when you choose magistrates, you take them from among yourselves, men subject to like passions as you are. Therefore when you see infirmities in us, you should reflect upon your own, and that would make you bear the more with us, and not be severe censurers of the failings of your magistrates, when you have continual experience of the like infirmities in yourselves and others. For the other point concerning liberty, I observe a great mistake in the country about that. There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal. The first is common to man with beasts and other creatures. By this, man, as he stands in relation to man simply, hath liberty to do what he lists; it is a liberty to evil as well as to good. This liberty is incompatible and inconsistent with authority, and cannot endure the least restraint of the most just authority. The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men grow more evil, and in time to be worse than brute beasts: omnes sumus licentia deteriores. This is that great enemy of truth and peace, that wild beast, which all the ordinances of God are bent against, to restrain and subdue it. The other kind of liberty I call civil or federal, it may also be termed moral, in reference to the covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and constitutions, amongst men themselves. This liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest. This liberty you are to stand for, with the hazard (not only of your goods, but) of your lives, if need be. Whatsoever crosseth this, is not authority, but a distemper thereof. THE PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS [1647] Preamble to the Code of Laws, Records of Rhode Island Colony I, p. 156. The form of government established . . . is democratical, that is to say, a government held by the free and voluntary consent of all or the greater part of the free inhabitants. REVEREND DANIEL DENTON [1670] A Long Island Minister. Here those which Fortune hath frown'd upon in England, to deny them an inheritance amongst their Brethren, or such as by their utmost labors can scarcely procure a living, I say such may procure here inheritances of lands and possessions, stock themselves with all sorts of Cattel, enjoy the benefit of them whilst they live, and leave them to the benefit of their children when they die: Here you need not trouble the Shambles for meat, nor Bakers and Brewers for Beer and Bread, nor run to a Linnen-Draper for a supply, every one making their own Linnen, and a great part of their woolencloth for their ordinary wearing: And how prodigal, If I may so say, hath Nature been to furnish the Countrey with all sorts of wilde Beasts and Fowle, which every one hath an interest in, and may hunt at his pleasure; where besides the pleasure in hunting, he may furnish his house with excellent fat Venison, Turkeys, Geese, Heath-Hens, Cranes, Swans, Ducks, Pidgeons, and the like: and wearied with that, he may go a Fishing, where the Rivers are so furnished, that he may supply himself with Fish before he can leave off the Recreation. Where you may travel by Land upon the same Continent hundreds of miles, passe thorough Towns and Villages, and never hear the least complaint for want, nor hear any ask you for a farthing: there you may lodge in the fields and woods, travel from one end of the Countrey to another, with as much security as if you were lockt within your own Chamber. Were it not to avoid prolixity I could say a great deal more, and yet say too little, how free are those parts of the world from that pride and oppression, with their miserable effects, which many, nay almost all parts of the world are troubled, with being ignorant of that pomp and bravery which aspiring Humours are servants to, and striving after almost every where: where a Waggon or Cart gives as good content as a Coach; and a piece of their home-made Cloth, better than the finest Lawns or richest Silks: and though their low-roofed houses may seem to shut their doors against pride and luxury, yet how do they stand wide open to let charity in and out, either to assist each other, or relieve a stranger, and the distance of place from other Nations, doth secure them from the envious frowns of ill-affected Neighbours, and the troubles which usually arise thence. WILLIAM PENN [1674] "Engiand's Present Interest Considered” p. 392. The estate goes before the steward; the foundation before the house, people before their representatives, and the creation before the creature. The steward lives by preserving the estate; the house stands by reason of its foundation; the representative depends upon the people, as the creature subsists by the power of its creator. Every representative may be called the creature of the people; because the people make them, and to them they owe their being. JUDGE SAMUEL SEWALL [1700] It is most certain that all Men, as they are the sons of Adam, are Co-heirs, and have equal Right unto Liberty, and all other outward Comforts of Life. JOHN ADAMS [1774] The Council and House of Representatives of Massachusetts Bay adopted a Proclamation composed by John Adams which was sent to all the town meetings. As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it, in reason, morality and the natural fitness of things. And, therefore, every act of government, every exercise of sovereignty against or without the consent of the people, is injustice, usurpation and tyranny. It is a maxim that in every government there must exist somewhere a supreme sovereign, absolute and uncontrollable power; but this power resides always in the body of the people; and it never was, or can be, delegated to one man or a few; the great Creator having never given to men a right to vest others with authority over them unlimited either in duration or degree. When kings, ministries, governors, or legislatures therefore, instead of exercising the powers entrusted with them according to the Principles, powers and proportions stated by the constitution, and established by the original compact, prostitute those powers to the purposes of oppression, to subvert, instead of supporting a free constitution; to destroy, instead of preserving the lives, liberties and properties of the people, they are no longer to be deemed magistrates vested with a sacred character but become public enemies and ought to be resisted. [1776] The new governments we are assuming, in every part, will require a purification from our vices, and an augmentation of our virtues, or they will be no blessings. The people will have unbounded power, and the people are extremely addicted to corruption and venality as well as the great. J. HECTOR ST. JOHN DE CRÈVECŒUR [1782] "Letters from An American Farmer” 1782. He (an enlightened Englishman arriving in America) is arrived in a new continent; a modern society offers itself to his contemplation, different from what he has hitherto seen. Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no eccleciastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one; no great manufacturers employing thousands, no refinements of luxury. We are a people . . . united by the silken bands of mild government, all respecting the laws, without dreading their power, because they are equitable . . . here man is as free as he ought to be. . . . The American is a new man who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions. |