Who ever heard that
succeeding legislatures were, on the whole, more honest than those
that preceded them? What is there in the nature of men or things to
make them so? If it be said that the first body were chosen from
motives of injustice, that fact proves that there is a portion of
society who desire to establish injustice; and if they were powerful
or artful enough to procure the election of their instruments to
compose the first legislature, they will be likely to be powerful or
artful enough to procure the election of the same or similar
instruments to compose the second. The right of suffrage,
therefore, and even a change of legislators, guarantees no change
of legislation certainly no change for the better. Even if a change
for the better actually comes, t cmes too late, because it comes
only after more or less injustice has been irreparably done.
But, at best, the right of suffrage can be exercised only
periodically; and between the periods the legislators are wholly
irresponsible.
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