Transcription

Men are perpetually calling government a necessary evil. The epithet is not fairly applied. Government is instituted as a remedy against an unavoidable evil, which exists in the natural constitution of man. it is true the remedy does not always produce the full effect intended; but it is only because the evil si too deeply fixed to admit of a cure. Government must not therefore itself be called an evil, merely because there are some evils, which it has not power to remove. If society is oppressed with tyranny, or agitated with sedition, it only shows that the lusts and passions of men are not altogether restrained by civil institutions. Men are acting agreeably to the impulse of their nature. The government under which such mischiefs happen is not capable of controlling entirely the excesses to which men are naturally prone. The enormities however would be far greater, were they not subject to some restraint, by the operation of the government. We are too fond of paying compliments to human nature, and therefore transfer the blame from ourselves to causes where it should not be fixed.