discharged........................

 Man enjoyed no greater blessing, he argued, than civil government.  It protected him both from his neighbor's self-interest and his own "propensity to superiority."  To resist a ruler was treason.  Adams rejoiced in the security their sovereign extended to his subjects.  It was "the duty of every subject, for conscience's sake, to submit to his authority, while he acted according to the law." Should he imperil the natural right and liberties of his subjects, however, "he overthrows the very design of government, and the people are discharged from all obedience."

-Stacy Schiff, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams