Λίγη από την Σοφία του Thomas Paine
Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow.
It may be worth observing, that the genealogy of Christ is traced to Adam. Why then not trace the rights of man to the creation of man?
The illuminating and divine principle of the equal rights of man (for it has its origin from the Maker of man) relates, not only to the living individuals, but to generations of men succeeding each other. Every generation is equal in rights to generations which preceded it, by the same rule that every individual is born equal in rights with his contemporary.
Man did not enter into society to become worse than he was before, nor to have fewer rights than he had before, but to have those rights better secured. His natural rights are the foundation of all his civil rights. But in order to pursue this distinction with more precision, it will be necessary to mark the different qualities of natural and civil rights.
Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the natural rights of others. Civil rights are those which appertain to man in right of his being a member of society. Every civil right has for its foundation some natural right pre−existing in the individual, but to the enjoyment of which his individual power is not, in all cases, sufficiently competent. Of this kind are all those which relate to security and protection.
Every civil right grows out of a natural right; or, in other words, is a natural right exchanged.
In casting our eyes over the world, it is extremely easy to distinguish the governments which have arisen out of society, or out of the social compact, from those which have not; but to place this in a clearer light than what a single glance may afford, it will be proper to take a review of the several sources from which governments have arisen and on which they have been founded.
They may be all comprehended under three heads.
First, Superstition.
Secondly, Power.
Thirdly, The common interest of society and the common rights of man.
The first was a government of priestcraft, the second of conquerors, and the third of reason.
When a set of artful men pretended, through the medium of oracles, to hold intercourse with the Deity, the world was completely under the government of superstition. The oracles were consulted, and whatever they were made to say became the law; and this sort of government lasted as long as this sort of superstition lasted.
After these a race of conquerors arose, whose government, like that of William the Conqueror, was founded in power, and the sword assumed the name of a sceptre. Governments thus established last as long as the power to support them lasts; but that they might avail themselves of every engine in their favor, they united fraud to force, and set up an idol which they called Divine Right, and which, in imitation of the Pope, who affects to be spiritual and temporal, and in contradiction to the Founder of the Christian religion, twisted itself afterwards into an idol of another shape, called Church and State. The key of St. Peter and the key of the Treasury became quartered on one another, and the wondering cheated multitude worshipped the invention.
It has been thought a considerable advance towards establishing the principles of Freedom to say that Government is a compact between those who govern and those who are governed; but this cannot be true, because it is putting the effect before the cause; for as man must have existed before governments existed, there necessarily was a time when governments did not exist, and consequently there could originally exist no governors to form such a compact with.
The fact therefore must be that the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist.
But it will be first necessary to define what is meant by a Constitution. It is not sufficient that we adopt the word; we must fix also a standard signification to it.
A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact. It has not an ideal, but a real existence; and wherever it cannot be produced in a visible form, there is none. A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution. The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people constituting its government. It is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article; and which contains the principles on which the government shall be established, the manner in which it shall be organised, the powers it shall have, the mode of elections, the duration of Parliaments, or by what other name such bodies may be called; the powers which the executive part of the government shall have; and in fine, everything that relates to the complete organisation of a civil government, and the principles on which it shall act, and by which it shall be bound. A constitution, therefore, is to a government what the laws made afterwards by that government are to a court of judicature. The court of judicature does not make the laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made: and the government is in like manner governed by the constitution.
A government on the principles on which constitutional governments arising out of society are established, cannot have the right of altering itself. If it had, it would be arbitrary. It might make itself what it pleased; And wherever such a right is set up, it shows there is no constitution.
The right of reform is in the nation in its original character, and the constitutional method would be by a general convention elected for the purpose.
On this question of war, three things are to be considered. First, the right of declaring it: secondly, the right of declaring it: secondly, the expense of supporting it: thirdly, the mode of conducting it after it is declared. The French Constitution places the right where the expense must fall, and this union can only be in the nation.
The mode of conducting it after it is declared, it consigns to the executive department. Were this the case in all countries, we should hear but little more of wars.”
TWO: THE END OF ALL POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS IS THE PRESERVATION OF THE NATURAL AND IMPRESCRIPTIBLE RIGHTS OF MAN; AND THESE RIGHTS ARE LIBERTY, PROPERTY, SECURITY, AND RESISTANCE OF OPPRESSION.
THREE: THE NATION IS ESSENTIALLY THE SOURCE OF ALL SOVEREIGNTY; NOR CAN ANY INDIVIDUAL, OR ANY BODY OF MEN, BE ENTITLED TO ANY AUTHORITY WHICH IS NOT EXPRESSLY DERIVED FROM IT.
FOUR: POLITICAL LIBERTY CONSISTS IN THE POWER OF DOING WHATEVER DOES NOT INJURE ANOTHER. THE EXERCISE OF THE NATURAL RIGHTS OF EVERY MAN, HAS NO OTHER LIMITS THAN THOSE WHICH ARE NECESSARY TO SECURE TO EVERY OTHER MAN THE FREE EXERCISE OF THE SAME RIGHTS; AND THESE LIMITS ARE DETERMINABLE ONLY BY THE LAW
FIVE: THE LAW OUGHT TO PROHIBIT ONLY ACTIONS HURTFUL TO SOCIETY. WHAT IS NOT PROHIBITED BY THE LAW SHOULD NOT BE HINDERED; NOR SHOULD ANYONE BE COMPELLED TO THAT WHICH THE LAW DOES NOT REQUIRE
SIX: THE LAW IS AN EXPRESSION OF THE WILL OF THE COMMUNITY. ALL CITIZENS HAVE A RIGHT TO CONCUR, EITHER PERSONALLY OR BY THEIR REPRESENTATIVES, IN ITS FORMATION. IT SHOULD BE THE SAME TO ALL, WHETHER IT PROTECTS OR PUNISHES; AND ALL BEING EQUAL IN ITS SIGHT, ARE EQUALLY ELIGIBLE TO ALL HONOURS, PLACES, AND EMPLOYMENTS, ACCORDING TO THEIR DIFFERENT ABILITIES, WITHOUT ANY OTHER DISTINCTION THAN THAT CREATED BY THEIR VIRTUES AND TALENTS
SEVEN: NO MAN SHOULD BE ACCUSED, ARRESTED, OR HELD IN CONFINEMENT, EXCEPT IN CASES DETERMINED BY THE LAW, AND ACCORDING TO THE FORMS WHICH IT HAS PRESCRIBED. ALL WHO PROMOTE, SOLICIT, EXECUTE, OR CAUSE TO BE EXECUTED, ARBITRARY ORDERS, OUGHT TO BE PUNISHED, AND EVERY CITIZEN CALLED UPON, OR APPREHENDED BY VIRTUE OF THE LAW, OUGHT IMMEDIATELY TO OBEY, AND RENDERS HIMSELF CULPABLE BY RESISTANCE.
EIGHT: THE LAW OUGHT TO IMPOSE NO OTHER PENALTIES BUT SUCH AS ARE ABSOLUTELY AND EVIDENTLY NECESSARY; AND NO ONE OUGHT TO BE PUNISHED, BUT IN VIRTUE OF A LAW PROMULGATED BEFORE THE OFFENCE, AND LEGALLY APPLIED.
NINE: EVERY MAN BEING PRESUMED INNOCENT TILL HE HAS BEEN CONVICTED, WHENEVER HIS DETENTION BECOMES INDISPENSABLE, ALL RIGOUR TO HIM, MORE THAN IS NECESSARY TO SECURE HIS PERSON, OUGHT TO BE PROVIDED AGAINST BY THE LAW.
TEN: NO MAN OUGHT TO BE MOLESTED ON ACCOUNT OF HIS OPINIONS, NOT EVEN ON ACCOUNT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS, PROVIDED HIS AVOWAL OF THEM DOES NOT DISTURB THE PUBLIC ORDER ESTABLISHED BY THE LAW.
ELEVEN: THE UNRESTRAINED COMMUNICATION OF THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS BEING ONE OF THE MOST PRECIOUS RIGHTS OF MAN, EVERY CITIZEN MAY SPEAK, WRITE, AND PUBLISH FREELY, PROVIDED HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ABUSE OF THIS LIBERTY, IN CASES DETERMINED BY THE LAW.
TWELVE: A PUBLIC FORCE BEING NECESSARY TO GIVE SECURITY TO THE RIGHTS OF MEN AND OF CITIZENS, THAT FORCE IS INSTITUTED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COMMUNITY AND NOT FOR THE PARTICULAR BENEFIT OF THE PERSONS TO WHOM IT IS INTRUSTED.
THIRTEEN: A COMMON CONTRIBUTION BEING NECESSARY FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE PUBLIC FORCE, AND FOR DEFRAYING THE OTHER EXPENSES OF GOVERNMENT, IT OUGHT TO BE DIVIDED EQUALLY AMONG THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY, ACCORDING TO THEIR ABILITIES.
FOURTEEN: EVERY CITIZEN HAS A RIGHT, EITHER BY HIMSELF OR HIS REPRESENTATIVE, TO A FREE VOICE IN DETERMINING THE NECESSITY OF PUBLIC CONTRIBUTIONS, THE APPROPRIATION OF THEM, AND THEIR AMOUNT, MODE OF ASSESSMENT, AND DURATION.
FIFTEEN: EVERY COMMUNITY HAS A RIGHT TO DEMAND OF ALL ITS AGENTS AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR CONDUCT.
SIXTEEN: EVERY COMMUNITY IN WHICH A SEPARATION OF POWERS AND A SECURITY OF RIGHTS IS NOT PROVIDED FOR, WANTS A CONSTITUTION.
SEVENTEEN: THE RIGHT TO PROPERTY BEING INVIOLABLE AND SACRED, NO ONE OUGHT TO BE DEPRIVED OF IT, EXCEPT IN CASES OF EVIDENT PUBLIC NECESSITY, LEGALLY ASCERTAINED, AND ON CONDITION OF A PREVIOUS JUST INDEMNITY.
