Page:The Rights of Man to Property!.djvu/12

 not be in an age and in a country, where every man is a Legislator, for any and every citizen to exercise his functions as such, whenever he shall believe he may be able to do so, with advantage to his fellow citizens.

But if, in this country, we are all Legislators, we are not exclusively so. No one of us has power in this capacity, of making a law over his fellow citizens, in opposition to his consent. A majority of our aggregate number is, alone, capable of fully consummating a Legislative act. As it regards each individual of our community of Legislators, he stands in relation to the whole, as a member of one of our State Assemblies does, to all the members of which it is composed. He has the same right, of making his motion, of submitting his propositions, and of offering all the arguments and reasons he thinks proper, in their support. Such is the relation, in which I perceive myself to be placed, with my fellow citizens of the State of New-York; and it is in the full exercise of the rights, in the possession of which, this relation leaves me, that I shall offer to their consideration, through the medium of this work, a proposition, to entirely re-model the political structure of our State, and make it essentially different from any thing of the kind heretofore known.

As it is, however, a proposition, which, before it can be carried into execution, must be thoroughly and deeply investigated, if not by every indivi