University of Virginia Library

3537. GOVERNMENT, Perversion.—

[While] certain forms of government are
better calculated than others to protect individuals
in the free exercise of their natural
rights, and are at the same time themselves
better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience
hath shown that, even under the best
forms, those entrusted with power have, in
time, and by slow operations, perverted it
into tyranny.—
Diffusion of Knowledge Bill. Ford ed., ii, 220.
(1779)