The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
That, in order to enforce the arbitrary measures before complained
of, his Majesty has, from time to time, sent among us large bodies
of armed forces, not made up of the people here, nor raised by the
authority of our laws. Did his Majesty possess such a right as this,
it might swallow up all our other rights, whenever he should think
proper. But his Majesty has no right to land a single armed man on our
shores; and those whom he sends here are liable to our laws, for the
suppression and punishment of riots, routs, and unlawful assemblies,
or are hostile bodies invading us in defiance of law. When, in the
course of the late war, it became expedient that a body of Hanoverian
troops should be brought over for the defence of Great Britain, his
Majesty's grandfather, our late sovereign, did not pretend to introduce
them under any authority he possessed. Such a measure would have given
just alarm to his subjects of Great Britain, whose liberties would not
be safe if armed men of another country, and of another spirit, might
be brought into the realm at any time, without the consent of their
legislature. He, therefore, applied to Parliament, who passed an act
for that purpose, limiting the number to be brought in, and the time
they were to continue. In like manner is his Majesty restrained in
every part of the empire. He possesses indeed the executive power of
the laws in every State; but they are the laws of the particular State,
which he is to administer within that State, and not those of any one
within the limits of another. Every State must judge for itself, the
number of armed men which they may safely trust among them, of whom
they are to consist, and under what restrictions they are to be laid.
To render these proceedings still more criminal against our laws,
instead of subjecting the military to the civil power, his majesty
has expressly made the civil subordinate to the military. But can his
Majesty thus put down all law under his feet? Can he erect a power
superior to that which erected himself? He has done it indeed by force;
but let him remember that force cannot give right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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