Sect. 197. AS conquest may be called a foreign usurpation, so usurpation is a kind of domestic conquest, with this difference, that an usurper can never have right on his side, it being no usurpation, but where one is got into the possession of what another has right to. This, so far as it is usurpation, is a change only of persons, but not of the forms and rules of the government: for if the usurper extend his power beyond what of right belonged to the lawful princes, or governors of the commonwealth, it is tyranny added to usurpation.
197. As conquest can be called a foreign usurpation, so usurpation is a kind of domestic conquest. There is a difference. An usurper can never have right on his side. It is not usurpation unless someone has taken possession of what rightfully belongs to someone else. So far as it is usurpation, it is merely a change of persons, not a change in the government's forms or rules. If the usurper exceeds the rightful powers of lawful princes or governors of the commonwealth, he adds tyranny to usurpation.
Sect. 198. In all lawful governments, the designation of the persons, who are to bear rule, is as natural and necessary a part as the form of the government itself, and is that which had its establishment originally from the people; the anarchy being much alike, to have no form of government at all; or to agree, that it shall be monarchical, but to appoint no way to design the person that shall have the power, and be the monarch. Hence all commonwealths, with the form of government established, have rules also of appointing those who are to have any share in the public authority, and settled methods of conveying the right to them: for the anarchy is much alike, to have no form of government at all; or to agree that it shall be monarchical, but to appoint no way to know or design the person that shall have the power, and be the monarch. Whoever gets into the exercise of any part of the power, by other ways than what the laws of the community have prescribed, hath no right to be obeyed, though the form of the commonwealth be still preserved; since he is not the person the laws have appointed, and consequently not the person the people have consented to. Nor can such an usurper, or any deriving from him, ever have a title, till the people are both at liberty to consent, and have actually consented to allow, and confirm in him the power he hath till then usurped.
198. In all lawful governments, designating the persons who are to rule is as natural and necessary a part as the form of the government itself. It is something the people originally established. Having no form of government at all is much the same anarchy as agreeing that it shall be monarchical but appointing no way to designate the person who shall have the power and be the monarch. So all commonwealths, along with the form of government they have established, also have rules for appointing those who are to have any share in the public authority, and settled methods of conveying the right to them. For having no form of government at all is much the same anarchy as agreeing that it shall be monarchical but appointing no way to know or designate the person who shall have the power and be the monarch. Whoever comes to exercise any part of the power by other ways than the laws of the community have prescribed has no right to be obeyed, even though the form of the commonwealth is still preserved. For he is not the person the laws have appointed, and so not the person the people have consented to. Nor can such a usurper, or anyone deriving from him, ever have a title until the people are both free to consent and have actually consented to allow and confirm in him the power he has until then usurped.