men, even when
arranged according to civil order, otherwise than by very long training,
brought at all to submit to it. The mind is brought far more easily to
acquiesce in the proceedings of one man, or a few, who act under a
general procuration for the state, than in the vote of a victorious
majority in councils in which every man has his share in the
deliberation. For there the beaten party are exasperated and soured by
the previous contention, and mortified by the conclusive defeat. This
mode of decision, where wills may be so nearly equal, where, according
to circumstances, the smaller number may be the stronger force, and
where apparent reason may be all upon one side, and on the other little
else than impetuous appetite,--all this must be the result of a very
particular and special convention, confirmed afterwards by long habits
of obedience, by a sort of discipline in society, and by a strong hand,
vested with stationary, permanent power to enforce this sort of
constructive general will. What organ it is that shall declare the
corporate mind is so much a matter of positive arrangement, that several
states, for the validity of several of their acts, have required a
proportion of voices much greater than that of a mere majority. These
proportions are so entirely governed by convention that in some cases
the minority decides. The laws in many countries to _condemn_ require
more than a mere majority; less than an equal number to _acquit_. In our
judicial trials we require unanimity either to condemn or to absolve. In
some incorporations one man speaks for the whole; in others, a few.
Until the other day, in the Constitution of Poland unanimity was
required to give validity to any act of their great national council or
diet. This approaches much more nearly to rude Nature than the
institutions of any other country. Such, indeed, every commonwealth must
be, without a positive law to recognize in a certain number the will of
the entire body.

If men dissolve their ancient incorporation in order to regenerate their
community, in that state of things each man has a right, if he pleases,
to remain an individual. Any number of individuals, who can agree upon
it, have an undoubted right to form themselves into a state apart and
wholly independent. If any of these is forced into the fellowship of
another, this is conquest and not compact. On every principle which
supposes society to be in virtue of a free covenant, this compu