as Men they hold from Nature, their Parents have no Right to ſtrip them of it; ſo that as to eſtabliſh Slavery it was neceſſary to do Violence to Nature, ſo it was neceſſary to alter Nature to perpetuate ſuch a Right; and the Juriſconſults, who have gravely pronounced that the Child of a Slave comes a Slave into the World, have in other Words decided, that a Man does not come a Man into the World.
It therefore appears to me inconteſtibly true, that not only Governments did not begin by arbitrary Power, which is but the Corruption and extreme Term of Government, and at length brings it back to the Law of the ſtrongeſt againſt which Governments were at firſt the Remedy, but even that, allowing they had commenced in this manner, ſuch Power being illegal in itſelf could never have ſerved as a Foundation to the Rights of
