Noah Webster - A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings

No. II. IV. V.

It is a capital defect in some of the States, that the government is so organized as not to admit subordinate acts of legislation in small districts. In these States, every little collection of people in a village must petition the Legislature for liberty to lay out a highway or build a bridge; an affair in which the State at large has very little interest, and of the necessity and utility of which the Legislature are not suitable judges. This occasions much trouble for the State; it is a needless expense. A State should be divided into inferior corporations, veiled with powers competent to all acts of local police. What right have the inhabitants of Suffolk to interfere in the building of a bridge in Montgomery?

[This was written in New York] Who are the most competent judges of a local convenience; the whole State, or the inhabitants of the particular district?

An error, originating in mistake, is often pursued thro obstinacy and pride; and sometimes a familiarity with falsehood , makes it appear like truth .

New York.

Some have suspected from these sentiments, that I favor the insurrection in Massachusetts. If it is necessary to be more explicit than I have been in the declaration, " I reprobate, &c. " I must add, that in governments like ours, derived from the people, I believe there is no possible situation in which violent opposition to laws can be justified; because it can never be necessary. General evils will always be legally redressed, and partial evils must be borne, if the majority require it. A tender law, which interferes with past contracts, is perhaps the wickedest act that a Legislature can be guilty of; and yet I think the people in Rhode Island have done right, in not opposing their's, in a violent manner.

Pensylvania.