My (Burr Cook) ancestors, the Gates family, a large number of which are buried at Hopewell, were early settlers in the area, coming from Keene NH. Route 20, passing through the middle of the township, was at that time a log road and the first toll turnpike in the state long before the thruway was thought of.
State of Nature. State of nature refers to a condition in which there is no established political authority. It is essentially a state of complete freedom. Political theorists have used it to better understand human nature and, typically, to justify the rationality of a particular type of government.
The use of history overcomes the objection that theory about the state of nature is all just imaginary. Whatever the state of nature may have been like, history is what actually resulted from it, or from whatever any earlier arrangements of human society may have been. At the same time, history can be cited as a mechanism of testing and justification.