Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/44

Mr. Turgot ſeems to be of a different opinion, and is for "collecting all authority into one center, the nation." It is eaſily underſtood how all authority may be collected into "one center" in a deſpot or monarch; but how it can be done, when the center is to be the nation, is more difficult to comprehend. Before we attempt to diſcuſs the notions of an author, we ſhould be careful to aſcertain his meaning. It will not be eaſy, after the moſt anxious reſearch, to diſcover the true ſenſe of this extraordinary paſſage. If, after the pains of "collecting all authority into one center," that center is to be the nation, we ſhall remain exactly where we began, and no collection of authority at all will be made. The nation will be the authority, and the authority the nation. The center will be the circle, and the circle the center. When a number of men, women, and children, are ſimply congregated together, there is no political authority among them; nor any natural authority, but that of parents over their children. To leave the women and children out of the queſtion for the preſent, the men will all be equal, free, and independent of each other. Not one will have any authority over any other. The firſt "collection" of authority muſt be an unanimous agreement to form themſelves into a nation, people, community, or body politick, and to be governed by the majority of ſuffrages or voices. But even in this caſe, although the authority is collected into one center, that center is no longer the nation, but the majority of the nation. Did Mr. Turgot mean, that the people of Virginia, for example, half a million of ſouls ſcattered over a territory of two hundred leagues ſquare, ſhould ſtop here, and have no other au-

thority