In all states and conditions, the true
remedy of force without authority, is to oppose force to it. The
use of force without authority, always puts him that uses it into
a state of war, as the aggressor, and renders him liable to be
treated accordingly.
Sec. 156. The power of assembling and dismissing the
legislative, placed in the executive, gives not the executive a
superiority over it, but is a fiduciary trust placed in him, for
the safety of the people, in a case where the uncertainty and
variableness of human affairs could not bear a steady fixed rule:
for it not being possible, that the first framers of the
government should, by any foresight, be so much masters of future
events, as to be able to prefix so just periods of return and
duration to the assemblies of the legislative, in all times to
come, that might exactly answer all the exigencies of the common-
wealth; the best remedy could be found for this defect, was to
trust this to the prudence of one who was always to be present,
and whose business it was to watch over the public good.
Constant frequent meetings of the legislative, and long
continuations of their assemblies, without necessary occasion,
could not but be burdensome to the people, and must necessarily
in time produce more dangerous inconveniencies, and yet the quick
turn of affairs might be sometimes such as to need their present
help: any delay of their convening might endanger the public; and
sometimes too their business might be so great, that the limited
time of their sitting might be too short for their work, and rob
the public of that benefit which could be had only from their
mature deliberation.
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