§ 330. The truth is, that the majority of every organized society has always claimed, and exercised the right to govern the hole of that society, in the manner pointed out by the fundamental laws, which from time to time have existed in such society.[1] Every revolution, at least when not produced by positive force, has been founded upon the authority of such majority. And the right results from the very necessities of our nature; for universal consent can never be practically required or obtained. The minority are bound, whether they have assented or not; for the plain reason, that opposite wills in the same society, on the same subjects, cannot prevail at the same time; and, as society is instituted for the general safety and happiness, in a conflict of opinion the majority must have a right to accomplish that object by the means, which they deem adequate for the end. The majority may, indeed, decide, how far they will respect the rights or claims of the minority; and how far they will, from policy or principle, insist upon or absolve them from obedience. But this is a matter, on which it decides decide for itself, according to their own notions of justice or convenience. In a general sense the will of the majority of the people is absolute and sovereign, limited only by its means and power to make its will effectual.[2] The declaration of independence (which, it is historically known, was not the act of the whole American people) puts the doc-
↑1 Tucker's Black. Comm. App. 168; Id. 172, 173; Burke's Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs.
↑Mr. Dane, in his Appendix to the ninth volume of his Abridgment, has examined this subject very much at large. See, especially, pages 37 to 43. Mr. Locke, the most strenuous asserter of liberty and of the original compact of society, contends resolutely for this power of the majority to bind the minority, as a necessary condition in the original formation of society. Locke on Government, B. 2, ch. 8, from § 95 to § 100.
