Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/165

Rh made by angels, nor by hores, but by men. The voice of the people is as much the voice of men, as the voice of a prince is the voice of a man; and yet the voice of the people is the voice of God, which the voice of a prince is not. The government of laws, aid Aritotle, is the government of God. In a monarchy, the laws, being made according to the interet of one man, or a few men, mut needs be more private and partial than uits with the nature of jutice; but in a commonwealth, the laws, being made by the whole people, mut come up to the public interet, which is common right and jutice—and if a man know not what is his own interet, who hould know it? and that which is the interet of the mot or greatet number of particular men, being ummed up in the common vote, is the public interet.

Sidney ays, "Liberty conits olely in an independency on the will of another; and, by a lave, we undertand a man who can neither dipoe of his peron or goods, but enjoys all at the will of his mater." And again, "As liberty conits only in being ubject to no man's will, and nothing denotes a lave but a dependence upon the will of another; if there be no other law in a kingdom but the will of a prince, there is no uch thing as liberty."

Mr. Turgot might have perceived in thee writers, that a government of laws and not of men, was intended by them as a decription of a commonwealth, not a definition of liberty. There may be various degrees of liberty etablihed by the laws, and enjoyed by the citizens, in different commonwealths; but till the general will, as well as the general interet, as far as it is undertood by the people, prevails in all that can be