Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents." in the context of "Letter to Thomas Jefferson (17 October 1788), as quoted in James Madison : The Writings, 1787-1790 Vol. 5 (1904)]" to mean that wisdom is timeless.