The associations which are formed are aware, as well as the nation at large, that they do not represent the majority: this is, indeed, a condition inseparable from their existence; for if they did represent the preponderating power, they would change the law instead of soliciting its reform.

The consequence of this is that the moral influence of the Government which they attack is very much increased, and their own power is very much enfeebled.
In Europe there are few associations which do not affect to represent the majority, or which do not believe that they represent it.

This conviction or this pretension tends to augment their force amazingly, and contributes no less to legalize their measures.

Violence may seem to be excusable in defence of the cause of oppressed right.

Thus it is, in the vast labyrinth of human laws, that extreme liberty sometimes corrects the abuses of license, and that extreme democracy obviates the dangers of democratic government.