GOVERNMENT, LAWS, 



not to blame for having slaves, until some man will show how 

 they are to get rid of them. No one has yet discovered the means. 

 Virtual representation, or, in other words, Universal interests. 

 is as good a thing as any one can devise for those States ; and, if 

 SIR FRANCIS will but boldly declare, that the people of England 

 must necessarily remain slaves, his joining of Davis Giddy and 

 Canning, will be very consistent. Let him black the skins of the 

 people of England, and honestly call a part of them his property, 

 and then he will not add the meanest to the most dastardly 

 apostacy. 



410. The right of suffrage in America is, however, upon the 

 whole, sufficient to guard the people against any general and long- 

 existing abuse of power ; for, let it be borne in mind, that here 

 the people elect all the persons, who are to exercise power ; while, 

 even if our Reform were obtained, there would still be two branches 

 out of the three, over whom the people would have no direct 

 control. Besides, in England, Ireland, and Scotland, there is 



^reestablished Church : a richly endowed and powerful hierarchy ; 

 and this, which is really a fourth branch of the government, has 

 nothing to resemble it in America. So that, in this country, 

 the whole of the Government may be truly said to be in the hands 

 of the people. The people are, in reality as well as in name, 



^represented. 



411. The consequences of this are, ist, that, if those who are 

 chosen do not behave well, they are not chosen a second time : 2nd, 

 that there are no sinecure placemen and place women, grantees, 

 pensioners without services, and big placemen who swallow the 

 earnings of two or three thousand men each ; 3rd, that there is no 

 military staff to devour more than the whole of a government 

 ought to cost ; 4tfty that there are no proud and insolent grasping 

 Boroughmongers, who make the people toil and sweat to keep 

 them and their families in luxury &amp;gt; 5th, that seats in the Congress 

 are not like stalls in Smithlield, bought and sold, or hired out ; 

 tlffthat the Members of Congress do not sell their votes at so 

 much a vote ; 7^kf that there is no waste of the public money, and 

 no expenses occasioned by the bribing of electors, or by the hiring 

 of Spies and informers ; 8th, that there are no shootings of the 

 people, and no legal murders committed, in order to defend the 

 government against the just vengeance of an oppressed and 

 insulted nation. But, all is harmony, peace and prosperity. 

 .Every man is zealous in defence of the laws, because every man 

 4cnows that he is governed by laws, to which he has really and 



truly given his assent. 



412. As to the nature of the Laws, the Common Law of England 

 is the Common Law of America. These States were formerly 

 Colonies of England. Our Boroughmongers wished to tax them 

 without their own consent. But, the Colonies, standing upon the 

 ancient Laws of England, which say that no man shall be taxed 

 without his own consent, resisted the Boroughmongers of that day ; 



