Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/353

 CH. III.] that he, who hath the trust, acting contrary, is a disclaimer of the trust." Mr. Sergeant Maynard said, "The constitution, notwithstanding the vacancy, is the same. The laws, that are the foundations and rules of that constitution, are the same. But if there be in any instance a breach of that constitution, that will be an abdication, and that abdication will confer a vacancy." Lord Nottingham said, "Acting against a man's trust (says Mr. Sergeant Holt) is a renunciation of that trust. I agree, it is a violation of his trust to act contrary to it. And he is accountable for that violation to answer, what the trust suffers out of his own estate. But I deny it to be presently a renunciation of the trust, and that such a one is no longer a trustee."

§ 343. Now it is apparent from the whole reasoning of all the parties, that they were not considering, how far the original institution of government was founded in compact, that is, how far society itself was founded upon a social compact. It was not a question brought into discussion, whether each of the people contracted with the whole people, or each department of the government with all others, or each organized community within the realm with all others, that there should be a frame of government, which should form a treaty between them, of which each was to judge for himself, and from which each was at liberty to withdraw at his pleasure, whenever he or they supposed it broken. All of the speakers on all sides were agreed, that the constitution was not gone; that it remained in full force, and obligatory upon the whole people, including the laws made under it, notwithstanding the violations by the king. 40