643. AUTHORITY, Source of.—[continued].
I consider the people who
constitute a society or nation as the source
of all authority in that nation; as free to
transact their common concerns by any
agents they think proper; to change these
agents individually, or the organization of
them in form or function whenever they
please; that all the acts done by these agents
under the authority of the nation are the acts
of the nation, are obligatory to them and inure
to their use, and can in no wise be annulled
or affected by any change in the form
of the government, or of the persons administering
it.—
Opinion on French Treaties. Washington ed. vii, 612.
Ford ed., vi, 220.
(1793)
