Every constitution..., and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years [a generation]. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.
ATTRIBUTION:
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), U.S. president. Letter, September 6, 1789, to James Madison. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 15, p. 396, ed. Julian P. Boyd, et al. (1950).
