The Americans’ circumstances in the first years of the new republic would shape the tenor of American politics and society thereafter, ensuring that the government’s authority would always be precarious. This was the Lockean dilemma. If the people had an inherent right to overthrow a government that they deemed systematically unwilling or unable to defend their natural rights, then no government could survive without substantial—and continuing—popular consent. As Jefferson put it, “Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them.”
