"Governments, like clocks ..." - William Penn

William Penn was deeded the entire territory of Pennsylvania to settle and govern. He included this remarkable statement in his preface to the Frame of Government of Pennsylvania in 1682.

Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too.

Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments.

Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavour to warp and spoil it to their turn.

Hillsdale Dialogues has more information about William Penn than most of us ever heard in gradeschool history.

https://blog.hillsdale.edu/dialogues/william-penn-frame-of-government