norml21 - Page 27
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certain natural inalienable rights, which a government of limited
powers must not infringe upon:
It must be conceded that there are such
rights in every free government beyond the
control of the States_ A government which
recognized no such rights, which held the
lives, the liberty and the property of its
citizen subject at all times to the absolute
disposition and unlimited control of even the
most democratic depository of power, is after
all but a despotism. It is true it is a
despotism of the many, of the majorityp if
you choose to call it so, but it is
nonetheless a despotism. It maF well be
doubted if a man is to hold all that he is
accustomed to call his owns all in which he
has placed his happiness_ and the security of
which is essential to that happiness, under
the unlimited dominion of others, whether it
is not wiser that this power should be
exercised by one man than by many°
The theory of our government, state and
national, is opposed to the deposit of
unlimited power anywhere. The executivef the
legislative and the judicial bral]ches of
these governments are all of limited and
defined powers°
There are limitations on such power which
grow out of the essential nature of all free
governments. Implied reservations of
individual rights, without which the social
compact could not exist, and which are
respected by all governments entitled to
name
7Savings and LoaI_Association v_ Ci<_fT 5oeka, 87 U.S. (20
Wall ) 655, 662_ 22 S Ct 4 _
o . ° 5_,, 461 (1875), see also Kent v_
D ulle_, 357 U.S. 116, 125, 78 So Ct. 1113 (1958).
27
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