This theory supposes that there may be certain laws that will be
beneficial to all, so beneficial that all consent to be taxed
for their maintenance. For the maintenance of these specific
laws, in which all are interested, all associate. And they
associate for the maintenance of those laws only, in which allare
interested. It would be absurd to suppose that all would
associate, and consent to be taxed, for purposes which were
beneficial only to a part; and especially for purposes that were
injurious to any. A government of the whole, therefore, can have
no powers except such as all the parties consent that it may
have. It can do nothing except what all have consented that it
may do. And if any portion of the people, no matter how large
their number, if it be less than the whole, desire a government
for any purposes other than those that are common to all, and
desired by all, they must form a separate association for those
purposes. They have no right, by perverting this government of
the whole, to the accomplishment of purposes desired only by a
part, to compel any one to contribute to purposes that are
either useless or injurious to himself.
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