But while the English were discarding the old principle they set up a
new one; which indeed is not so pernicious because it cannot become so
extensive, but which is scarcely more reasonable: it is the right of kings
by _compact;_ that is, a compact, whether written or understood,
by which the representatives of a nation are supposed to bind their
constituents and their descendants to be the subjects of a certain prince
and of his descendants to perpetuity. This singular doctrine is developed
with perspicuity, but ill supported by argument, in Burke's _Reflections
on the French Revolution._
The principle of the American government denies the right of any
representatives to make such a compact, and the right of any prince to
carry it into execution if it were made. Whatever varieties or mixtures
there may be in the _forms_ of government, there are but two distinct
principles on which government is founded. One supposes the source of power
to be _out_ of the people, and that the governor is not accountable to
them for the manner of using it; the other supposes the source of power to
be _in_ the people, and that the governor is accountable to them for
the manner of using it. The latter is our principle. In this sense no
_right divine_ nor _compact_ can form a king; that is, a person,
exercising underived and unreverting power.
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