argument maintained, the right
of every nation at all times to establish such a system and form of
government for itself as best accords with its disposition, interest,
and happiness; and to change and alter it as it sees occasion. Will any
Jury deny to the Nation this right? If they do, they are traitors, and
their verdict would be null and void. And if they admit the right, the
means must be admitted also; for it would be the highest absurdity to
say, that the right existed, but the means did not. The question then
is, What are the means by which the possession and exercise of
this National Right are to be secured? The answer will be, that
of maintaining, inviolably, the right of free investigation; for
investigation always serves to detect error, and to bring forth truth.

I have, as an individual, given my opinion upon what I believe to be
not only the best, but the true system of Government, which is the
representative system, and I have given reasons for that opinion.

First, Because in the representative system, no office of very
extraordinary power, or extravagant pay, is attached to any individual;
and consequently there is nothing to excite those national contentions
and civil wars with which countries under monarchical governments are
frequently convulsed, and of which the History of England exhibits such
numerous instances.

Secondly, Because the representative is a system of Government always
in maturity; whereas monarchical government fluctuates through all the
stages, from non-age to dotage.

Thirdly, Because the representative system admits of none but men
properly qualified into the Government, or removes them if they prove
to be otherwise. Whereas, in the hereditary system, a nation may be
encumbered with a knave or an ideot for a whole life-time, and not be
benefited by a successor.

Fourthly, Because there does not exist a right to establish hereditary
government, or, in other words, hereditary successors, because
hereditary government always means a government yet to come, and the
case always is, that those who are to live afterwards have the same
right to establish government for themselves, as the people had who
lived before them; and, therefore, all laws attempting to establish
hereditary government, are founded on assumption and political fiction.

If these positions be truths, and I challenge any man to prove the
contrary; if they tend to instruct and enlighten mankind, and to free
them