  In 1777, Jacobi’s friend and literary collaborator C.M. Wieland (1733–1813) had published an essay arguing that power is the only source of legitimacy for political authority, hence that the only adequate form of government is a strictly autocratic  one.[8]  Right follows upon the physical ability to enforce obedience. Jacobi replied with a point-by-point rebuttal that was published only four years later (Jacobi, 1781). For one thing, Wieland was historically wrong by misconstruing the actual origin of societies. Even more important, Wieland was conceptually wrong by not recognizing that ‘moral law’ and ‘natural necessity’ can be subsumed under the one concept of ‘natural right’ only in a very broad sense. Moral rights derive their force from the freedom of individuals, not from any consideration of natural laws.