"Which is better — to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or three thousand tyrants one mile away?" — Rev. Mather Blyes, 1706-1788
Does it really matter if the instrument curtailing liberty is a monarch or a popularly elected legislature? This conundrum, along with the witty version of it put to a Boston crowd in 1775 by the little-known colonial-era preacher with the famous uncle — Cotton Mather, addresses the age-old question of whether liberty can survive in a democracy.