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>Actually Marc was paraphrasing "The Tyranny of the Majority", taken form some >colonial writing, can you help me as to the exact quote Eyler? Actually, I don't think that phrase came from the founding era, though I could be wrong. My impression is, it is a later invention, and heavily used by objectivists, libertarians, and such. I think the founders were more worried about the tyranny of the minority, than the tyranny of the majority. The tyranny of the minority results in an entirely different system of government. Given a choice, I think they preferred the tyranny of the majority. The closest I've seen is "No other rule exists, by which any question which may divide a Society, can be ultimately determined, but by the will of the majority; but it is also true, that the majority may trespass on the rights of the minority." --James Madison "Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression." --Thomas Jefferson