Considerations on the Questions of the Adoption of a Constitution, and Extension of Suffrage in Rhode Island |
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Page 24
... minority into submission with- out conflict . In either case , it would be a revolution , and not a legal change . The doctrine of peaceable legal revo- lution was a discovery reserved for this enlightened age and people . If We are ...
... minority into submission with- out conflict . In either case , it would be a revolution , and not a legal change . The doctrine of peaceable legal revo- lution was a discovery reserved for this enlightened age and people . If We are ...
Page 25
... minority to obey . . . . We hold our property , our wives and children , and our lives even at its sovereign will and pleasure . It may do by us and ours as it pleases . If it take it into its head to make a new and arbitrary division ...
... minority to obey . . . . We hold our property , our wives and children , and our lives even at its sovereign will and pleasure . It may do by us and ours as it pleases . If it take it into its head to make a new and arbitrary division ...
Page 27
... minority ought not to be sacri- ficed even to the greatest good of the greatest number . This savors too much of submitting every thing to the will of the majority . All laws should be for the greatest good of the whole society . A ...
... minority ought not to be sacri- ficed even to the greatest good of the greatest number . This savors too much of submitting every thing to the will of the majority . All laws should be for the greatest good of the whole society . A ...
Page 32
... minority . We are very apt to get our notions of the rights of majorities from our common practice of governing by majorities . After a government is formed , and the repub- lican form adopted , as with us , and the 32.
... minority . We are very apt to get our notions of the rights of majorities from our common practice of governing by majorities . After a government is formed , and the repub- lican form adopted , as with us , and the 32.
Page 33
... minority of the party , which is itself but a lean majority of the whole people . If the actual opinion of those who , in both parties , are really opposed to them , could be collected , you would not unfre- quently have an overwhelming ...
... minority of the party , which is itself but a lean majority of the whole people . If the actual opinion of those who , in both parties , are really opposed to them , could be collected , you would not unfre- quently have an overwhelming ...
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Common terms and phrases
act of congress admitted to vote adopted American citizens appeal argument article or provision Assembly asserted bind boundary lines call a convention change the government Charles II civil claim colony Connecticut considered contended convention of delegates declare democracy democratic doctrine domestic violence Dorr duty elected established government excluded executive existing government express extension of suffrage fact force form of government fraud freeholders full and perfect give government of Rhode greatest number guarantied JOHN TYLER lawless assemblages laws legal constitution legislature majority manner meet ment Michigan minority natural right never Newport obtained opinion oppression organized peaceable people's constitution people's party persons popular population president principle Providence qualified voters reason rection redress republican Rhode Island right of revolution right of suffrage royal charter Senate social compact sovereign sovereignty stitution sufficient suffrage party thing tion town-meeting towns twenty-one Union United voice Washington county whigs
Popular passages
Page 47 - The fourth section of the fourth article of the constitution of the United States provides that the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; and on the application of the legislature or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.
Page 44 - God that the established government be obeyed, and no longer. . . . This principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other.
Page 46 - No usage, law, or authority whatever is so binding that it need or ought to be continued, when it may be changed with advantage to the community. The family of the prince, the order of succession, the prerogative of the crown, the form and parts of the legislature, together with the respective powers, office, duration, and mutual dependency of the several parts, are all only so many laws, mutable like other laws whenever expediency requires, either by the ordinary act of the legislature, or, if the...
Page 44 - ... so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency, it is the will of God that the established government be obeyed, and no longer This principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other.
Page 47 - February 28, 1795, provided, that, " in case of an insurrection in any State against the government thereof, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, on application of the legislature of such State or of the executive, when the legislature cannot be convened, to call forth such number of the militia of any other State or States, as may be applied for, as he may judge sufficient to suppress such insurrection.
Page 51 - Union; and if an exigency of lawless violence shall actually arise, The Executive Government of the United States, on the application of your Excellency, under the authority of the resolutions of the Legislature already transmitted, will stand ready to succor the authorities of the State in their efforts to maintain a due respect for the laws.
Page 47 - ... whenever it may be necessary in the judgment of the President to use the military force hereby directed to be called forth, the President shall forthwith and previous thereto, by proclamation, command such insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within a limited time...
Page 50 - I have from the first felt persuaded that your excellency and others associated with yourself in the administration of the government would exhibit a temper of conciliation as well as of energy and decision. To the insurgents themselves it ought to be obvious, when the excitement of the moment shall have passed away, that changes achieved by regular and, if necessary, repeated appeals to the constituted authorities, in a country so much under the influence of public opinion, and by recourse to argument...
Page 50 - States forthwith to interpose the authority and power of the United States to suppress such insurrectionary and lawless assemblages, to support the existing government and laws, and protect the State from domestic violence.
Page 47 - States to call forth the militia for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection, or of causing the laws to be duly executed, it shall be lawful for him to employ, for the same purposes, such part of the land or naval force of the United States as shall be judged necessary, having first observed all the prerequisites of the law in that respect.