“True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate”

Speech (3 January 1834), quoted in Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions (1999), p. 256
Context: True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate, just as national sovereignty is above the secondary agreements of the government.

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Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette 7
French general and politician 1757–1834

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