7792. SELF-GOVERNMENT, Right to.—
The inhabitants of the several States of
British America are subject to the laws which
they adopted at their first settlement, and to
such others as have since been made by their
respective Legislatures, duly constituted and
appointed with their own consent. No other
Legislature whatever can rightly exercise authority
over them; and these privileges they
hold as the common rights of mankind, confirmed
by the political constitutions they have
respectively assumed, and also by several
charters of compact from the Crown.—
Resolution of Albemarle [446]
County.
Ford ed., i, 418.
(July 26, 1774)