Wesley Corpus

When a man voluntarily comes into America, he may lose what he had when in Europe. Perhaps he had a right to vote for a knight or burgess; by crossing the sea he did not forfeit this right. But it is plain, he has made the exercise of it no longer possible. He has reduced himself from a voter to one of the innumerable multitude that have no votes. 6. But you say, “As the colonies are not represented in the British Parliament, they are entitled to a free power of legislation. For they inherit all the right which their ancestors had of enjoying all the privileges of Englishmen.” They do inherit all the privileges which their ancestors had; but they can inherit no more. Their ancestors left a country where the representatives of the people were elected by men particularly qualified, and where those who wanted that qualification were bound by the decisions of men whom they had not deputed. You are the descendants of men who either had no votes, or resigned them by emigration. You have therefore exactly what your ancestors left you; not a vote in making laws, nor in choosing legislators; but the happiness of being protected by laws, and the duty of obeying them. What your ancestors did not bring with them, neither they nor their descendants have acquired. They have not, by aban doning their right in one legislature, acquired a right to consti tute another; any more than the multitudes in England who have no vote, have a right to erect a Parliament for themselves. 7. However, the “colonies have a right to all the privi leges granted them by royal charters, or secured to them by provincial laws.” The first clause is allowed: They have certainly a right to all the privileges granted them by royal charters; provided those privileges be consistent with the British constitution. But as to the second there is a doubt: Provincial laws may grant privileges to individuals of the province; but surely no province can confer provincial privileges on itself! They have a right to all which the King has given them; but not to all which they have given themselves. A corporation can no more assume to itself privileges which it had not before, than a man can, by his own act and deed, assume titles or dignities.