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Significant essay by and in the hand of James Mitchell Varnum (1748-1789), a brigadier general with the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War and delegate of Rhode Island in the Continental Congress (1780-1781 and 1787). The essay concerns the obligations of rulers to citizens and citizens to their rulers, as well as crime, punishment, etc., offering keen insight into the mindset of the Americans as they forged a new nation. The essay begins: "As all encroachments in Society, upon the Rights of Individuals, are Tyrannical, so the attempts of Individuals to assert their own Independence & invade the Privileges of others are pernicious to the peace of society and destructive of public liberty, to protect which Punishments are inflicted - Punishments therefore are the results of necessity and ought to be no greater than is requisited for that end..."