24. ABUSES, Temptations to.—
Nor should our Assembly be deluded by the integrity
of their own purposes, and conclude
that these unlimited powers will never be
abused, because themselves are not disposed
to abuse them. They should look forward to
a time, and that not a distant one, when
corruption in this as in the country from
which we derive our origin, will have seized
the heads of government, and be spread by
them through the body of the people; when
they will purchase the voices of the people
and make them pay the price. Human
nature is the same on each side of the
Atlantic, and will be alike influenced by the
same causes. The time to guard against corruption
and tyranny is before they shall have
gotten hold of us. It is better keep the wolf
out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his
teeth and talons after he shall have entered.—
Notes on Virginia.
Washington ed. viii, 362.
Ford ed., iii, 224.
(1782)
