For all the power the Government has, being only for the good of the society, as it ought not to be arbitrary and at pleasure: So it ought to be exercised by established and promulgated laws; that both the People may know their duty, and be safe and secure within the limits of the law, and the Rulers too kept within their due bounds, and not to be tempted by the power they have in their hands to employ it to purposes, and by such measures as they would not have known, and own not willingly.
The Supreme Power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent. For the preservation of property being the end of government, and that for which men enter into society, it necessarily supposes and requires, that the People should have property, without which they must be supposed to lose that by entering into society, which was the end for which they entered into it.
Men therefore in society having property, they have such a right to the goods, which by the law of the community are theirs, that nobody hath a right to take them, or any part of them from them. Hence it is a mistake to think, that the Supreme or Legislative Power of any Commonwealth, can do what it will, and dispose of the estates of the subject arbitrarily, or take any part of them at pleasure. For a man's property is not at all secure, though there be good and equitable laws to set the bounds of it between him and his fellow subjects, if he who commands those subjects, have power to take from any private man what part he pleases of his property, and use and dispose of it as he thinks good.
The Legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands, for it being but a delegated power from the people, they who have it cannot pass it over to others. The people alone can appoint the form of the Commonwealth, which is by constituting the Legislative, and appointing in whose hands that shall be. And when the People have said, we will submit to be governed by laws made by such men, and in such forms, nobody else can say other men shall make laws for them; nor can they be bound by any laws but such as are enacted by those whom they have chosen, and authorized to make laws for them. The power of the Legislative being derived from the People by a positive voluntary grant and institution, can be no other than what that positive grant conveyed, which being only to make laws, and not to make Legislators, the Legislative can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands.
These are the bounds which the trust that is put in them by the society, and the Law of God and Nature, have set to the Legislative Power of every Commonwealth, in all forms of Government.
First, they are to govern by promulgated established laws, not to be varied in particular cases, but to have one rule for rich and poor, for the favorite at Court and the country man at plough. Secondly, these laws also ought to be designed for no other end ultimately but the good of the People. Thirdly, they must not rise taxes on the property of the people, without the consent of the people, given by themselves, or their deputies. Fourthly, the Legislative neither must nor can transfer the Power of making laws to anybody else, or place it anywhere but where the People have.
MYR CONVENTION!