| Majority Rule |
| |
|
The only way a republican
government can function, and the only way a people's voice can be expressed to effect a
practicable control of government, is through a process in which decisions are made by the
majority. This is not a perfect way of controlling government, but the
alternatives--decisions made by a minority, or by one person--are even worse and are the
source of great evil. To be just, majority decisions must be in the best interest of all
the people, not just one faction.
|
| |
| |
 |
| |
| |
|
"The first principle
of republicanism is that the lex majoris partis is the fundamental law of every
society of individuals of equal rights; to consider the will of the society enounced by
the majority of a single vote as sacred as if unanimous is the first of all lessons in
importance, yet the last which is thoroughly learnt. This law once disregarded, no other
remains but that of force, which ends necessarily in military despotism." --Thomas
Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, 1817. ME 15:127
|
| |
|
"The will of the people...
is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression
should be our first object." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waring, 1801. ME 10:236
|
| |
|
"The measures of the fair
majority... ought always to be respected." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington,
1792. ME 8:397
|
| |
|
"I subscribe to the
principle, that the will of the majority honestly expressed should give law."
--Thomas Jefferson: The Anas, 1793. ME 1:332
|
| |
|
"All... being equally free,
no one has a right to say what shall be law for the others. Our way is to put these
questions to the vote, and to consider that as law for which the majority votes."
--Thomas Jefferson: Address to the Cherokee Nation, 1809. ME 16:456
|
| |
|
"[We acknowledge] the
principle that the majority must give the law." --Thomas Jefferson to William
Carmichael, 1788. ME 7:28
|
| |
|
"This... [is] a country
where the will of the majority is the law, and ought to be the law." --Thomas
Jefferson: Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:85
|
| |
|
"Civil government being the
sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common
consent." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.VIII, 1782. ME 2:120
|
| |
|
"The fundamental principle
of [a common government of associated States] is that the will of the majority is to
prevail." --Thomas Jefferson to William Eustis, 1809.
|
| |
|
"The voice of the majority
decides. For the lex majoris partis is the law of all councils, elections, etc.,
where not otherwise expressly provided." --Thomas Jefferson: Parliamentary Manual,
1800. ME 2:420
|
| |
|
"It is the multitude which
possess force, and wisdom must yield to that." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel
Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:492
|
| |
| |
|
The Natural Law by which Self-Government is Exercised
|
| |
| |
|
"Every man, and every body
of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government. They receive it with their being
from the hand of nature. Individuals exercise it by their single will; collections of men
by that of their majority; for the law of the majority is the natural law of every
society of men." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on Residence Bill, 1790. ME 3:60
|
| |
|
"The Lex majoris partis,
founded in common law as well as common right, [is] the natural law of every assembly of
men whose numbers are not fixed by any other law." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on
Virginia Q.XIII, 1782. ME 2:172
|
| |
|
"The people of [a] country
[that have] never been in the habit of self-government [will] not [be] in the habit of
acknowledging that fundamental law of nature by which alone self-government can be
exercised by a society, I mean the lex majoris partis. Of the sacredness of this
law, our countrymen are impressed from their cradle so that with them it is almost innate.
This single circumstance may possibly decide the fate of [a nation]." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Breckenridge, Jan. 29, 1800. (*)
|
| |
|
"If we are faithful to our
country, if we acquiesce, with good will, in the decisions of the majority, and the nation
moves in mass in the same direction, although it may not be that which every individual
thinks best, we have nothing to fear from any quarter." --Thomas Jefferson to
Virginia Baptists, 1808. ME 16:321
|
| |
|
"On no question can a
perfect unanimity be hoped." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Inhabitants of Boston,
1808. ME 16:315
|
| |
|
"We cannot always do what is
absolutely best. Those with whom we act, entertaining different views, have the power and
the right of carrying them into practice."--Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814.
ME 14:200
|
| |
|
"[With a majority] having
declared against [our proposal], we must suppose we are wrong, according to the
fundamental law of every society, the lex majoris partis, to which we are bound to
submit." --Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 1789. ME 7:324
|
| |
| |
| The Only Source of Just Power |
| |
| |
|
"And where else will [Hume,]
this degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow men, find the origin of just
powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will it be in the minority? Or in an
individual of that minority?" --Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824. ME 16:44
|
| |
|
"Where the law of the
majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends, the law of the strongest takes
its place, and life and property are his who can take them." --Thomas Jefferson to
Annapolis Citizens, 1809. ME 16:337
|
| |
|
"Absolute acquiescence in
the decision of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal
but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism, I deem [one of] the
principles of our Government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its
administration." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801. ME 3:321
|
| |
|
"[Bear] always in mind that
a nation ceases to be republican only when the will of the majority ceases to be the
law." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to the Citizens of Adams County, Pa., 1808. ME 12:18
|
| |
|
"[A faction's] newspapers
say rebellion, and that they will not remain united with us unless we will permit them to
govern the majority. If this be their purpose, their anti-republican spirit, it ought to
be met at once. But a government like ours should be slow in believing this, should put
forth its whole might when necessary to suppress it, and promptly return to the paths of
reconciliation. The extent of our country secures it, I hope, from the vindictive passions
of the petty incorporations of Greece." --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1812.
ME 13:162
|
| |
| |
|
Living Majorities Decide for Themselves
|
| |
| |
|
"This corporeal globe, and
everything upon it, belong to its present corporeal inhabitants during their generation.
They alone have a right to direct what is the concern of themselves alone, and to declare
the law of that direction; and this declaration can only be made by their majority. That
majority, then, has a right to depute representatives to a convention, and to make the
constitution what they think will be the best for themselves." --Thomas Jefferson to
Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:43
|
| |
|
"If this avenue [i.e., the
expression of the voice of the whole people] be shut to the call of sufferance, it will
make itself heard through that of force, and we shall go on as other nations are doing in
the endless circle of oppression, rebellion, reformation; and oppression, rebellion,
reformation again; and so on forever." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.
ME 15:43
|
| |
|
"That our Creator made the
earth for the use of the living and not of the dead; that those who exist not can have no
use nor right in it, no authority or power over it; that one generation of men cannot
foreclose or burthen its use to another, which comes to it in its own right and by the
same divine beneficence; that a preceding generation cannot bind a succeeding one by its
laws or contracts; these deriving their obligation from the will of the existing majority,
and that majority being removed by death, another comes in its place with a will equally
free to make its own laws and contracts; these are axioms so self-evident that no
explanation can make them plainer; for he is not to be reasoned with who says that
non-existence can control existence, or that nothing can move something. They are axioms
also pregnant with salutary consequences." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Earle, 1823.
ME 15:470
|
| |
|
"The rights of one
generation will scarcely be considered hereafter as depending on the paper transactions of
another." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington (?), 1794. ME 9:284
|
| |
|
"We who have gone before
have performed an honest duty by putting in the power of our successors a state of
happiness which no nation ever before had within their choice. If that choice is to throw
it away, the dead will have neither the power nor the right to control them."
--Thomas Jefferson to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 1820. ME 15:281
|
| |
| |
| When the Majority is Wrong |
| |
| |
|
"We are sensible of the duty
and expediency of submitting our opinions to the will of the majority, and can wait with
patience till they get right if they happen to be at any time wrong." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Breckenridge, 1800.
|
| |
|
"I readily... suppose my
opinion wrong, when opposed by the majority... however, I should have done it with more
complete satisfaction, had we all judged from the same position." --Thomas Jefferson
to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:99
|
| |
|
"It is my principle that the
will of the majority should prevail. If they approve the proposed constitution in all its
parts, I shall concur in it cheerfully, in hopes that they will amend it whenever they
shall find it works wrong. This reliance cannot deceive us, as long as we remain
virtuous." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. (Forrest version) ME 6:392
|
| |
|
"It is an encouraging
observation that no good measure was ever proposed which, if duly pursued, failed to
prevail in the end." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Coles, 1814.
|
| |
|
"I know no safe depositary
of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not
enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is
not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true
corrective of abuses of constitutional power." --Thomas Jefferson to William C.
Jarvis, 1820. ME 15:278
|
| |
|
"Against such a majority we
cannot effect [the gathering them into the fold of truth] by force. Reason and persuasion
are the only practicable instruments." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII,
1782. ME 2:223
|
| |
| |
|
The Rights and Duties of the Minority
|
| |
| |
|
"If the measures which have
been pursued are approved by the majority, it is the duty of the minority to acquiesce and
conform." --Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1811. ME 13:51
|
| |
|
"Every man's reason [is] his
own rightful umpire. This principle, with that of acquiescence in the will of the
majority, will preserve us free and prosperous as long as they are sacredly
observed." --Thomas Jefferson to John F. Watson, 1814. ME 14:136
|
| |
|
"It is a rule in all
countries that what is done by the body of a nation must be submitted to by all its
members." --Thomas Jefferson: Address to Miami and Delaware Nations, 1803. ME 16:398
|
| |
|
"Laws made by common consent
must not be trampled on by individuals." --Thomas Jefferson to Garret Vanmeter, 1781.
ME 4:417, Papers 5:566
|
| |
|
"Bear in mind this sacred
principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to
be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal
laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st
Inaugural, 1801. ME 3:318
|
| |
|
"The majority, oppressing an
individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the
strongest breaks up the foundations of society." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel
Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:490
|
| |
|
"Great innovations should
not be forced on a slender majority." --Thomas Jefferson to John Armstrong, 1808. ME
12:42
|
| |
|
"[Sometimes] the minorities
are too respectable, not to be entitled to some sacrifice of opinion, in the
majority." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:184
|
| |
|
"Those who bear equally the
burthens of Government should equally participate of its benefits." --Thomas
Jefferson: Virginia Resolutions, 1775. Papers 1:172
|
| |
|
"A geographical division...
is a most fatal of all divisions, as no authority will submit to be governed by a majority
acting merely on a geographical principle." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel H. Smith,
1821. FE 10:191
|
| |
|
"It is not probable that
local discontents can spread to such an extent as to be able to faze the sound parts of so
extensive a Union; and if ever they should reach the majority, they would then become the
regular government, acquire the ascendency in Congress and be able to redress their own
grievances by laws peaceably and constitutionally passed." --Thomas Jefferson to A.
L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1811. ME 13:20
|
| |
|
ME, FE = Memorial
Edition, Ford Edition.
|
| |
| |
| |
