James Wilson Quote
A State, I cheerfully admit, is the noblest work of Man: But Man, himself, free and honest, is, I speak as to this word, the noblest work of God.
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The extension of the theory and practice of representation through all the different departments of the sate is another very important acquisition made, by the Americans, in the science of...
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Government, indeed, taken as a science, may yet be considered in its infancy; and with all its various modifications, it has hitherto been the result of force, fraud, or accident. For, after the lapse...
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Government, in my humble opinion, should be formed to secure and to enlarge the exercise of the natural rights of its members; and every government, which has not this in view, as its principal...
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the consequence is, that the happiness of society is the first law of every government. This rule is founded on the law of nature: it must control every political maxim: it must regulate the...
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Does man exist for the sake of government? Or is government instituted for the sake of man?
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Freemen, who know and love their rights, will not exchange their armour of pure and massy gold, for one of a baser and lighter metal, however finely it may be blazoned with tinsel: but they will not...
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In a state of natural liberty, every one is allowed to act according to his own inclination, provided he transgress not those limits, which are assigned to him by the law of nature: in a state of civil...
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Upon the whole, therefore, man's natural liberty, instead of being abridged, may be increased and secured in a government, which is good and wise. As it is with regard to his natural liberty, so it is...
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If this view be a just view of things, the consequence, undeniable and unavoidable, is, that, under civil government, individuals have "given up" or "surrendered" their rights, to which they were...
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Those rights result from the natural state of man; from that situation, in which he would find himself, if no civil government was instituted. In such a situation, a man finds himself, in some...
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Of municipal law, the rights and the duties of benevolence are sometimes, though rarely, the objects. When they are so, they will receive the pleasing and the merited attention.
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I am first to show, that a man has a natural right to his property, to his character, to liberty, and to safety.
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To his character, every one has a natural right. A man's character may, I think, be described as the just result of those opinions, which ought to be formed concerning his talents, his sentiments, and...
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How prevalent even among enlightened writers, is the mistaken opinion, that government is subversive of equality and nature! Is it necessarily so? By no means. When I speak thus, I speak confidently,...
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