The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
HUME, DAVID / BRITAIN'S CONSTITUTION
Hume, the great apostle of Toryism, says, in so many words, note AA
to chapter 42, that, in the reign of the Stuarts, "it was the
people who encroached upon the sovereign, not the sovereign who
attempted, as is pretended, to usurp upon the people." This
supposes the Norman usurpations to be rights in his successors. And
again, C 159, "the commons established a principle, which is
noble in itself, and seems specious, but is belied by all history and
experience,
that the people are the origin of all just power." And
where else will this degenerate son of science, this traitor to his
fellow men, find the origin of just powers, if not in the
majority of the society? Will it be in the minority? Or in an
individual of that minority?
to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824
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