ossible
to believe that it _had not in view some provision for these destitute
persons_. It would be monstrous to suppose the contrary. The contrary
supposition would argue, that fraud was committed upon the mass of the
people in forming this civil society; for, as the sparks fly upwards, so
will there always be destitute persons to some extent or other, in _every
community_, and such there are to now a considerable extent, even in the
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; therefore, the formation of the civil society
must have been fraudulent or tyrannical upon any other supposition than
that it made provision, in some way or other, for destitute persons; that
is to say, for persons unable, from some cause or other, to provide for
themselves the food and raiment sufficient to preserve them from
perishing. Indeed, a provision for the destitute seems _essential to the
lawfulness_ of civil society; and this appears to have been the opinion of
BLACKSTONE, when, in the first Book and first Chapter of his Commentaries
on the Laws of England, he says, "the law not only regards _life_ and
_member_, and protects every man in the enjoyment of them, but also
_furnishes him with every thing necessary for their support_. For there is
no man so indigent or wretched, but he may _demand_ a supply _sufficient
for all the necessaries of life_ from the more opulent part of the
community, by means of the several statutes enacted for the relief of the
poor; a humane provision _dictated_ by the _principles of society_."

11. No man will contend, that the main body of the people in any country
upon earth, and of course in England, would have consented to abandon the
rights of nature; to give up their right to enjoy all things in common; no
man will believe, that the main body of the people would ever have given
their assent to the establishing of a state of things which should make
all the lands, and all the trees, and all the goods and cattle of every
sort, private property; which should have shut out a large part of the
people from having such property, and which should, at the same time, not
have provided the means of preventing those of them, who might fall into
indigence, from being _actually starved to death_! It is impossible to
believe this. Men never gave their assent to enter into society on terms
like these. One part of the condition upon which men entered into society
was, that care should be taken that no human being should perish from
want.