be changed by the influence of discussion, and the exercise of the
right of suffrage. Discussion can do nothing to prevent the
enactment, or procure the repeal, of unjust laws, unless it be
understood that, the discussion is to be followed by resistance.
Tyrants care nothing for discussions that are to end only in
discussion. Discussions, which do not interfere with the
enforcement of their laws, are but idle wind to them. Suffrage is
equally powerless and unreliable. It can be exercised only
periodically; and the tyranny must at least be borne until the time
for suffrage comes. Be sides, when the suffrage is exercised, it
gives no guaranty for the repeal of existing laws that are
oppressive, and no security against the enactment of new ones that
are equally so. The second body of legislators are liable and likely
to be just as tyrannical as the first. If it be said that the second
body may be chosen for their integrity, the answer is, that the first
were chosen for that very reason, and yet proved tyrants. The
second will be exposed to the same temptations as the first, and
will be just as likely to prove tyrannical. Who ever heard that
succeeding legislatures were, on the whole, more honest than those
that preceded them? What is there in the nature of men or things to
make them so? If it be said that the first body were chosen from
motives of injustice, that fact proves that there is a portion of
society who desire to establish injustice; and if they were powerful
or artful enough to procure the election of their instruments to
compose the first legislature, they will be likely to be powerful or
artful enough to procure the election of the same or similar
instruments to compose the second. The right of suffrage,
therefore, and even a change of legislators, guarantees no change
of legislation certainly no change for the better. Even if a change
for the better actually comes, t cmes too late, because it comes