Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Thomas Jefferson on Restrictions on Natural Rights

clipped from etext.virginia.edu


"Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII, 1782. ME 2:221

"Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government... This, like all other natural rights, may be abridged or modified in its exercise by their own consent, or by the law of those who depute them, if they meet in the right of others."
"Were [a right] to be refused, or to be so shackled by regulations, not necessary for... peace and safety... as to render its use impracticable,... it would then be an injury, of which we should be entitled to demand redress."
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