It was tried in
Ireland, and, though tempered at first by principles of English law,
it gave birth to cruelties so atrocious that they are never recounted
without just indignation. The French Convention armed its deputies with
this power and sent them to the southern departments of the Republic.
The massacres, murders, and other atrocities which they committed show
what the passions of the ablest men in the most civilized society will
tempt them to do when wholly unrestrained by law.
The men of our race in every age have struggled to tie up the hands
of their governments and keep them within the law, because their own
experience of all mankind taught them that rulers could not be relied
on to concede those lights which they were not legally bound to respect.
The head of a great empire has sometimes governed it with a mild and
paternal sway, but the kindness of an irresponsible deputy never yields
what the law does not extort from him. Between such a master and the
people subjected to his domination there can be nothing but enmity; he
punishes them if they resist his authority, and if they submit to it
he hates them for their servility.
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