The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
Context: Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature.
“Let us, in particular, take care not to forget the principles of the Revolution. ... I will only take notice of the three following:
First; The right to liberty of conscience in religious matters.
Secondly; The right to resist power when abused.
And, Thirdly; The right to chuse our own governors; to cashier them for misconduct; and to frame a government for ourselves.”
Source: A Discourse on the Love of Our Country (1789), p. 34
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Richard Price 5
Welsh nonconformist preacher and radical 1721–1791Related quotes
From Letters from a Farmer, in Pennsylvania, to the inhabitants of the British Colonies, Letter XII, Dickinson, Philadelphia
Letter to Francis W. Gilmer (27 June 1816); The Writings of Thomas Jefferson edited by Ford, vol. 10, p. 32
1810s
Context: Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him; every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him; and, no man having a natural right to be the judge between himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions, and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society we give up any natural right.
The 5,000 Year Leap (1981)
James M. McPherson. Battle Cry of Freedom http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/153655 (1988) p. 241
1980s
2011, " America Is Not a Battlefield http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=7002"
First Inaugural Address (4 March 1829).
1820s
“Governors have no right to seek and take what they please”
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
Context: Government was instituted for the purposes of common defence, and those who hold the reins of government have an equitable, natural right to an honorable support from the same principle that "the laborer is worthy of his hire." But then the same community which they serve ought to be the assessors of their pay. Governors have no right to seek and take what they please; by this, instead of being content with the station assigned them, that of honorable servants of the society, they would soon become absolute masters, despots, and tyrants. Hence, as a private man has a right to say what wages he will give in his private affairs, so has a community to determine what they will give and grant of their substance for the administration of public affairs. And, in both cases, more are ready to offer their service at the proposed and stipulated price than are able and willing to perform their duty.