By
the same reason, he that forced a promise from me ought presently to
restore it- i.e., quit me of the obligation of it; or I may resume
it myself- i.e., choose whether I will perform it. For the law of
Nature laying an obligation on me, only by the rules she prescribes,
cannot oblige me by the violation of her rules; such is the
extorting anything from me by force. Nor does it at all alter the
case, to say I gave my promise, no more than it excuses the force, and
passes the right, when I put my hand in my pocket and deliver my purse
myself to a thief who demands it with a pistol at my breast.
187. From all which it follows that the government of a conqueror,
imposed by force on the subdued, against whom he had no right of
war, or who joined not in the war against him, where he had right, has
no obligation upon them.
188. But let us suppose that all the men of that community being all
members of the same body politic, may be taken to have joined in
that unjust war, wherein they are subdued, and so their lives are at
the mercy of the conqueror.
189. I say this concerns not their children who are in their
minority. For since a father hath not, in himself, a power over the
life or liberty of his child, no act of his can possibly forfeit it;
so that the children, whatever may have happened to the fathers, are
free men, and the absolute power of the conqueror reaches no farther
than the persons of the men that were subdued by him, and dies with
them; and should he govern them as slaves, subjected to his
absolute, arbitrary power, he has no such right of dominion over their
children.
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