When a government betrays the people by amassing too much power and becoming tyrannical, the people have no choice but to exercise their original right of self-defense — to fight the government.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of people defending themselves against a tyrannical government.
In this quote, Alexander Hamilton articulates the belief that when a government abuses its power and transforms into a tyrannical entity, it is the rightful duty of the people to defend their freedoms and fight back. This attitude reflects a foundational principle in democratic societies, where the authority of the government is derived from the consent of the governed, and any deviation from that can lead to justified resistance.
In practice
This quote can be used during a political rally to inspire citizens to stand up for their rights.
When men, engaged in unjustifiable pursuits, are aware that obstructions may come from a quarter which bare apprehension of opposition from doing what they would with eagerness rush into if no such external impediments were to be feared.
The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state, for the protection of its rights and interests: and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce among individuals. Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.
It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government.
The Achaeans soon experienced, as often happens, that a victorious and powerful ally is but another name for a master.
The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge right or make good decision.
The true principle of a republic is that the people should choose whom they please to govern them. Representation is imperfect, in proportion as the current of popular favor is checked. The great source of free government, popular election, should be perfectly pure, and the most unbounded liberty allowed.
Our Constitution does not profess to have been established simply by the majority, but by 'the people' - the minority as much as the majority.
I have not come to know atheism as a result of logical reasoning and still less as an event in my life: in me it is a matter of instinct.
I believe in nothing that I cannot touch, kiss, embrace.... The rest is only hearsay.
All I wanted and all Neal wanted and all anybody wanted was some kind of penetration into the heart of things where, like in a womb, we could curl up and sleep the ecstatic sleep that Burroughs was experiencing with a good big mainline shot of M. and advertising executives in NY were experiencing with twelve Scotch & Sodas in Stouffers before they made the drunkard's train to Westchester---but without hangovers.
Yes, in my life, since we must call it so, there were three things, the inability to speak, the inability to be silent, and solitude, that’s what I’ve had to make the best of.
A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.
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