More finely, they do not need to be governed to be good. They are good because they choose to be, freely. Not because they dread being caught and punished were they to do something bad.

Do you need government to keep you from raping your neighbor's wife? From stealing his car or some other such impulse you've got? Probably not. If government ceased to be tomorrow, your neighbor, his wife – and their stuff – would be just as safe from you as they are today. The only difference is that – if government ceased to be – you'd both be safe from government.

This was what many of the founders said about the government they came up with. The second president of the United States, John Adams, said "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Franklin said – when asked what kind of government had been put together – "a republic, if you can keep it."