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“The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property….[Therefore,] whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they [the officials of government] put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience, and are left to the common refuge which God hath provided for all men against force and violence. Whensoever, therefore, the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society, and either by ambition, fear, folly, or corruption, endeavour to grasp themselves or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties and estates of the people, by this breach of trust
they [the government officials] forfeit the power the people had put into their hands
…and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and …provide for their own safety and security.”
(
John Locke
,
Second Essay Conserning Civil Government
, pp. 75-76, par. 222.)
Related Categories
Life, Liberty and Property
Slavery