Thy country sought of thee, it sought unjustly,
Against the law of nature, law of nations,
No more thy country, but an impious crew
Of men conspiring to uphold their state
By worse than hostile deeds, violating the ends
For which our country is a name so dear
Not therefore to be obey’d.[1]
Milton, Samson Agonistes (1671)
[1] John Milton, “Samson Agonistes” in John Milton: The Major Works, ed.
Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p.
694 (889-895).
Modern translation, Chapter XXII:
It would be an error to believe that there has never existed anywhere in the world a human authority that is despotic in all its aspects … Even the greatest power is limited in some way. If the Grand Seigneur … were to attempt to impose some new tax, the resulting outcry would be such as to make him observe the limits to which he had not known he was subject. Although the King of Persia may be able to force a son to kill his father …, that same King cannot force his subjects to drink wine. Every nation is dominated by a general spirit, on which its very power is founded. Anything undertaken in defiance of that spirit is a blow against that power, and as such must necessarily come to a stop.[1]
Older version (finished in 1876, following the American Civil War and published
in 1882)
It is an error to suppose that there is any human in the world which is,
in all respects, despotic. There never was and there never will be
such. The most enormous power is always limited on some side. Let
the Grand Seigneur impose a novel tax upon Constantinople, and the general
outcry will immediately disclose limits to his power which he had not
known. A king of Persia may indeed constrain a son to kill his father, or
a father to kill his son; but to compel his subjects to drink wine would be
beyond his power. There is in every nation a general spirit upon which
power itself is founded. When it shocks this spirit, power disturbs its
own foundation, and thus necessarily checks itself.[2]
Original French (published in Amsterdam in 1734, without author's name)
C’est une erreur de croire qu’il y ait dans le monde une autorité humaine, A tous les égards despotique; il n’en a jamais eu, et il n’y en aura jamais. Le pouvoir le plus immense est toujours borné par quelque coin. Que le Grand Seigneur mette un nouvel impôt à Constantinople, un cri général lui fait d’abord trouver des limites qu’il n’avait pas connues. Un roi de Perse peut bien contraindre un fils de tuer son père ou un père de tuer son fils ; mais obliger ses sujets de boire du vin, il ne le peut pas. Il y a, dans chaque nation, un esprit général sur lequel la puissance même est fondée. Quand elle choque cet esprit, elle se choque elle-même, et elle s’arrête nécessairement.[3]
[1] See the topic on “Despotism” in Vol. II of
the Dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. Philip P. Weiner (New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973), p. 9.
[2] Montesquieu, Considerations of the
Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans, tr. Jehu Baker (New
York: D. Appleton and Company, 1882 [Alpha Editions, 2019]), p. 460. Chapter
XXII. Jehu Baker was also a member of the U.S. House of Representatives,
first as Republican, and later as Democrat.
[3] Montesquieu, Considérations sur les
causes de la grandeur des romains et de leur décadence, ed. Irena Montreal, 1873 [Bolton, ON:
Amazon, nd], p. 151. Chapter XXII.
John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (completed before Glorious Revolution of 1688/89)
Secondly, I answer, such Revolutions happen not upon every little mismanagement in publick
affairs. Great mistakes in the ruling
part, many wrong and inconvenient Laws, and all the slips of human frailty will
be born by the people, without mutiny
or murmur. But if a long train of Abuses, Prevarications, and Artifices, all tending the
same way, make the design visible to the People, and they cannot but feel,
what they lie under, and see, whither they are going; ‘tis not to be wonder’d,
that they should then rouze themselves, and endeavor to put the rule into such
hands, which may secure to them the ends for which Government was at first
erected; and without which, ancient Names, and specious Forms, are so far from being all as great and as near, but the remedy
farther off and more difficult[1]
The Declaration of Independence (In Congress, July 4, 1776)
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen
united States of America, When in the course of human events, it becomes
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected
them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare
the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experiences hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. – Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.[2]
[1] John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Peter Laslett (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 415. Second Treatise, para. 225.
[2] National Archives: America’s Founding Documents (online source).
