5696. NATURAL RIGHTS, Self-government and.—
Every man, and every body
of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government.
They receive it with their being
from the hand of nature. Individuals exercise
it by their single will; collections of men
by that of their majority; for the law of the
majority is the natural law of every society
of men. When a certain description of men
are to transact together a particular business,
the times and places of their meeting and
separating, depend on their own will; they
make a part of the natural right of self-government.
This, like all other natural rights,
may be abridged or modified in its exercise
by their own consent, or by the law of those
who depute them, if they meet in the right
of others; but as far as it is not abridged
or modified, they retain it as a natural right,
and may exercise them in what form they
please, either exclusively by themselves, or in
association with others, or by others altogether,
as they shall agree.—
Official Opinion. Washington ed. vii, 496.
Ford ed., v, 205.
(1790)
