Sec. 154. If the legislative, or any part of it, be made up
of representatives chosen for that time by the people, which
afterwards return into the ordinary state of subjects, and have
no share in the legislature but upon a new choice, this power of
chusing must also be exercised by the people, either at certain
appointed seasons, or else when they are summoned to it; and in
this latter case ' the power of convoking the legislative is
ordinarily placed in the executive, and has one of these two
limitations in respect of time: that either the original
constitution requires their assembling and acting at certain
intervals, and then the executive power does nothing but
ministerially issue directions for their electing and assembling,
according to due forms; or else it is left to his prudence to
call them by new elections, when the occasions or exigencies of
the public require the amendment of old, or making of new laws,
or the redress or prevention of any inconveniencies, that lie on,
or threaten the people.
Sec. 155. It may be demanded here, What if the executive
power, being possessed of the force of the common-wealth, shall
make use of that force to hinder the meeting and acting of the
legislative, when the original constitution, or the public
exigencies require it? I say, using force upon the people
without authority, and contrary to the trust put in him that does
so, is a state of war with the people, who have a right to
reinstate their legislative in the exercise of their power: for
having erected a legislative, with an intent they should exercise
the power of making laws, either at certain set times, or when
there is need of it, when they are hindered by any force from
what is so necessary to the society, and wherein the safety and
preservation of the people consists, the people have a right to
remove it by force.
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