4947. MAJORITY, Slender.—[continued].
The first principle of republicanism
is that the lex majoris partis is
the fundamental law of every society of individuals
of equal rights; to consider the will
of the society enounced by the majority of a
single vote as sacred as if unanimous, is the
first of all lessons in importance, yet the last
which is thoroughly learnt. This law once
disregarded, no other remains but that of
force, which ends necessarily in military despotism.
This has been the history of the
French Revolution.—
To F. H. Alexander von Humboldt. Washington ed. vii, 75.
Ford ed., x, 89.
(M.
1817)
