Considerations Upon the Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions |
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Page 270 - Many murders have been discovered among them ; and they are not only a most unspeakable oppression to poor tenants (who, if they give not bread, or some kind of provision, to perhaps forty such villains in one day, are sure to be insulted by them), but they rob many poor people who live in houses distant from any neighbourhood.
Page 270 - In years of plenty many thousands of them meet together in the mountains, where they feast and riot for many days; and at country weddings, markets, burials, and other the like public occasions, they are to be seen both men and women perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting together.
Page 294 - I shall at present mention, is that of having arms for their defense, suitable to their condition and degree, and such as are allowed by law. Which is also declared by the same statute, * * * and it is indeed a public allowance, under due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.
Page 270 - ... two hundred thousand people begging from door to door. These are not only no way advantageous, but a very grievous burden to so poor a country. And though the number of them be perhaps double to what it was formerly, by reason of this present great distress, yet in all times there have been about one hundred thousand of those vagabonds, who have lived without any regard or subjection either to the laws of the land, or even those of God and nature...
Page 199 - ... legislative and the executive powers. The latter may be confined, and even is the more easily so, when undivided: the legislative, on the contrary, in order to its being restrained, should absolutely be divided. For, whatever laws it may make to restrain itself, they never can be, relatively to it, any thing more than simple resolutions : as those bars which it might erect to stop its own motions must then be within it, and rest upon it, they- can be no bars.
Page 341 - And again, after stating that the judiciary is the weakest of the three departments of the government...
Page 270 - ... either to the laws of the land, or even those of God and Nature, fathers incestuously accompanying their own daughters, the son with the mother, and the brother with the sister.
Page 53 - ... is no inequality. Third. Because the principle of equality may very well be recognized as the rule among men as citizens — as members of a political community, although as individuals there may be great and numerous inequalities between them. The utmost which the citizen can demand is that no law shall be passed to obstruct his rise, and to impede his progress through life.
Page 105 - ... vindication of our American institutions. " It has been supposed that where these changes are frequent, the persons elected must be, for the most part, inexperienced and incompetent. Public office itself, creates, to a great extent, the very ability which is required for the performance of its duties. It is not at all uncommon, when individuals have been snatched up from the walks of private life to fill responsible stations, to find that the affairs of society are conducted pretty much upon...
Page 385 - June, 1787, in the convention which framed the constitution of the United States, it was moved by Mr. Randolph, and seconded by Mr. Madison, that the, jurisdiction of the national judiciary shall extend to all questions which involve the national peace and harmony.