It Requires Time To Bring Honest Men

Were The Talents And Virtues, Which Heaven Has Bestowed On Men, Given Merely To Make Then More Obedient Drudges, To Be Sacrificed To The Follies And Ambition Of A Few? Or, Were Not The Noble Gifts So Equally Dispensed With A Divine Purpose And Law, That They Should As Nearly As Possible Be Equally Exerted, And The Blessings Of Providence Be Equally Enjoyed By All?

The Liberties Of Our Country, The Freedoms Of Our Civil Constitution Are Worth Defending At All Hazards; It Is Our Duty To Defend Them Against All Attacks. We Have Received Them As A Fair Inheritance From Our Worthy Ancestors. They Purchased Them For Us With Toil And Danger And Expense Of Treasure And Blood. It Will Bring A Mark Of Everlasting Infamy On The Present Generation – Enlightened As It Is – If We Should Suffer Them To Be Wrested From Us By Violence Without A Struggle, Or To Be Cheated Out Of Them By The Artifices Of Designing Men.

And That The Said Constitution Be Never Construed To Authorize Congress To Infringe The Just Liberty Of The Press, Or The Rights Of Conscience; Or To Prevent The People Of The United States, Who Are Peaceable Citizens, From Keeping Their Own Arms; Or To Raise Standing Armies, Unless Necessary For The Defense Of The United States, Or Of Some One Or More Of Them; Or To Prevent The People From Petitioning, In A Peaceable And Orderly Manner, The Federal Legislature, For A Redress Of Grievances; Or To Subject The People To Unreasonable Searches And Seizures Of Their Persons, Papers Or Possessions.

If Men, Through Fear, Fraud, Or Mistake, Should In Terms Renounce Or Give Up Any Natural Right, The Eternal Law Of Reason And The Grand End Of Society Would Absolutely Vacate Such Renunciation. The Right To Freedom Being The Gift Of Almighty God, It Is Not In The Power Of Man To Alienate This Gift And Voluntarily Become A Slave.

Hence As A Private Man Has A Right To Say What Wages He Will Give In His Private Affairs, So Has A Community To Determine What They Will Give And Grant Of Their Substance For The Administration Of Public Affairs.