I ... [rely] Upon The

In A State Of Tranquility, Wealth, And Luxury, Our Descendants Would Forget The Arts Of War And The Noble Activity And Zeal Which Made Their Ancestors Invincible. Every Art Of Corruption Would Be Employed To Loosen The Bond Of Union Which Renders Our Resistance Formidable. When The Spirit Of Liberty Which Now Animates Our Hearts And Gives Success To Our Arms Is Extinct, Our Numbers Will Accelerate Our Ruin And Render Us Easier Victims To Tyranny.

In Short, It Is The Greatest Absurdity To Suppose It In The Power Of One, Or Any Number Of Men, At The Entering Into Society, To Renounce Their Essential Natural Rights, Or The Means Of Preserving Those Rights; When The Grand End Of Civil Government, From The Very Nature Of Its Institution, Is For The Support, Protection, And Defence Of Those Very Rights; The Principal Of Which, As Is Before Observed, Are Life, Liberty, And Property.

It Requires Time To Bring Honest Men To Think & Determine Alike Even In Important Matters. Mankind Are Governed More By Their Feelings Than By Reason.

The Public Cannot Be Too Curious Concerning The Characters Of Public Men.

I Would Advise Persisting In Our Struggle For Liberty, Though It Were Revealed From Heaven That Nine Hundred And Ninety-nine Men Were To Perish, And Only One Of A Thousand To Survive And Retain His Liberty. One Such Freeman Must Possess More Virtue, And Enjoy More Happiness, Than A Thousand Slaves.