“The curse and scandal of human nature.”
That’s how James Otis, Jr. described arbitrary power. It wasn’t just a sign of tyranny, or a step toward it. It was the very definition of tyranny.
It is power without right.
And that principle pervades the Declaration of Independence.
But this wasn’t a new idea born of the American Revolution. The principle stretches back thousands of years and became the driving force behind written constitutions.
The Founders didn’t just fear arbitrary power or fight against it. They defined it. And they warned us: it leads to tyranny, every single time.
WHAT IS ARBITRARY POWER?
James Otis Jr. defined it this way in 1762:
“arbitrary; which in plain English means no more than to do as one pleases.”
The principle carried forward to the Constitution itself. “Lighthorse” Harry Lee made the standard clear: if a power exercised isn’t enumerated, it’s arbitrary and unconstitutional.
“When a question arises with respect to the legality of any power, exercised or assumed by Congress, it is plain on the side of the governed. Is it enumerated in the Constitution? If it be, it is legal and just. It is otherwise arbitrary and unconstitutional.”
So any time government acts beyond the limits of a constitution, it is arbitrary. It is lawless.
To Otis, arbitrary power wasn’t just dangerous. It was vile. It was corrupt.
“the curse and scandal of human nature”
The old revolutionaries considered arbitrary power the very definition of tyranny.
Otis was calling the British out for violating their own system – the long-standing, unwritten British constitution. Instead of honoring it, they were ruling by arbitrary power.
“a greater difference on this side the Grave cannot be found, than that which subsists between British subjects, and the slaves of tyranny.”
Hellbound and Down 