Charles Davenport Quotes

Let this stand then as a settled maxim of the law of nature, never to be shaken by any artifices of flatterers, that the senate, or the people, are superior to kings, be they good or bad: which is but what you yourself do in effect confess when you tell us that the authority of kings was derived from the people. For that power which they transferred to princes doth yet naturally, or, as I may say, virtually, reside in themselves notwithstanding.

The law is an adroit mixture of customs that are beneficial to society, and could be followed even if no law existed, and others that are of advantage to a ruling minority, but harmful to the masses of men, and can be enforced on them only by terror.

For centuries we have been living in the society where not laws but people ruled, where there was no legal state.

We have come from the divine right of kings to the divine right of the governed.

His majesty is an absolute king and not bound to give any account, to any, of his actions … yet he is so gracious and regardful a prince and was of the love and contentment of his subjects, …. That he would not think it fit to do anything of so great a consequence without acquainting them of his intentions.

The power of Kings and Magistrates is nothing else, but what is only derivative, transferred and committed to them in trust from the People.

The public power of all society is above every soul contained in the same society.

As force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as the most free and the most popular.

All kings of England had ever, in cases of necessity or expediency, been accustomed, at intervals, to elude them [the laws.]

It is a maxim that in every Government, there must exist, somewhere a Supreme, Sovereign, absolute, and uncontrollable Power; But this Power resides, always in the body of the People, and it never was, or can be delegated, to one Man, or a few.

The law is king. The king is not the law.

The Sovereign: The People

The king ought not to be under any man, but under God and under the law, for the law makes the king. Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo et lege, quia lex facit regem.

Law lives in the consciousness of the people.

Americans use custom, more than written law, to enforce virtue

The more powerful the state, the more important it submit to widely held norms and consensual methods.

Public opinion has become the public law

Whatever the People has last ordained shall be held as binding by law.

The king is from God, the law from the king.

An independent House of Commons is as inconsistent to our Constitution as an independent, that is, absolute King.

A good king, though he be above the law, will subject and frame his actions thereto, for example's sake to his subjects, and of his own free will, but not as subject or bound thereto ...

The general laws of the kingdom may be enacted only with the consent of the king and the nation. If the king proposes a law, the nation accepts or rejects it; if the nation demands a law, it is for the king to consent or to reject it

Resolved-1st, That the People are the source of all legitimate power; and, That We are the People.

Sovereignty resides originally in the people, and in each individual with regard to himself; and that it is the transferring and uniting the several rights of individuals in the person of the sovereign, that constitutes him such, and really produces sovereignty.

Traditional autocrats leave in place existing allocations of wealth, power, status, and other re-sources which in most traditional societies favor an affluent few and maintain masses in poverty. But they worship traditional gods and observe traditional taboos. They do not disturb the habitual rhythms of work and leisure, habitual places of residence, habitual patterns of family and personal relations.