right is the same in
all cases. The first, as is before observed, is defective in power; the
second, is practicable only in democracies of small extent; the third,
is the greatest scale upon which human government can be instituted.

Next to matters of _principle_ are matters of _opinion_, and it is
necessary to distinguish between the two. Whether the rights of men
shall be equal is not a matter of opinion but of right, and consequently
of principle; for men do not hold their rights as grants from each
other, but each one in right of himself. Society is the guardian but not
the giver. And as in extensive societies, such as America and France,
the right of the individual in matters of government cannot be exercised
but by election and representation, it consequently follows that the
only system of government consistent with principle, where simple
democracy is impracticable, is the representative system. But as to the
organical part, or the manner in which the several parts of government
shall be arranged and composed, it is altogether _matter of opinion_,
It is necessary that all the parts be conformable with the _principle of
equal rights_; and so long as this principle be religiously adhered to,
no very material error can take place, neither can any error continue
long in that part which falls within the province of opinion.

In all matters of opinion, the social compact, or the principle by which
society is held together, requires that the majority of opinions becomes
the rule for the whole, and that the minority yields practical obedience
thereto. This is perfectly conformable to the principle of equal rights:
for, in the first place, every man has a _right to give an opinion_ but
no man has a right that his opinion should _govern the rest_. In the
second place, it is not supposed to be known beforehand on which side
of any question, whether for or against, any man's opinion will fall.
He may happen to be in a majority upon some questions, and in a minority
upon others; and by the same rule that he expects obedience in the one
case, he must yield it in the other. All the disorders that have arisen
in France, during the progress of the revolution, have had their origin,
not in the _principle of equal rights_, but in the violation of that
principle. The principle of equal rights has been repeatedly violated,
and that not by the majority but by the minority, and _that minority
has been composed of men possessing prop