The Medlock Post Ep. 129: The Insurrection of the Rule of Law
Once again, we find John Locke setting forth
this same doctrine in his classical Second Essay Concerning Civil Government:
“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, endeavor 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.”
