Legal Commentary

From Benjamin Oliver, The Rights of an American Citizen (1832)

By Eugene Volokh

An interesting quote, which I ran across yesterday and thought I?d pass along (not apropos any particular current event):

[T]he right of the people to resist their rulers, when invading their liberties, forms the corner stone of American Republics. This principle, though just in itself, is not favorable to the tranquillity of present establishments....

To overthrow a monarchy is one thing; to establish a permanent, free, popular government is another.... Well-disposed men therefore will hesitate long before they join in any attempt to overthrow or revolutionize their government, under any pretext whatever. For in many cases, revolutions do not result so much from a sense of intolerable oppression as from a fondness for an idol [?] ... an imaginary degree of liberty, which if it were real, the frailty, perverseness, and folly of mankind ... wholly disqualifies them from enjoying.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on February 16, 2011 (boomark / email).