Establish That A Government May Decline A

If It Were To Be Asked, What Is The Most Sacred Duty And The Greatest Source Of Our Security In A Republic? The Answer Would Be, An Inviolable Respect For The Constitution And Laws - The First Growing Out Of The Last . . . . A Sacred Respect For The Constitutional Law Is The Vital Principle, The Sustaining Energy Of A Free Government.

Were Not The Disadvantages Of Slavery Too Obvious To Stand In Need Of It, I Might Enumerate And Describe The Tedious Train Of Calamities Inseparable From It. I Might Show That It Is Fatal To Religion And Morality; That It Tends To Debase The Mind, And Corrupt Its Noblest Springs Of Action. I Might Show That It Relaxes The Sinews Of Industry, Clips The Wings Of Commerce, And Introduces Misery And Indigence In Every Shape.

No Character, However Upright, Is A Match For Constantly Reiterated Attacks, However False.

Law Is Defined To Be A Rule Of Action; But How Can That Be A Rule, Which Is Little Known And Less Fixed?

Happy Will It Be For Ourselves, And Most Honorable For Human Nature, If We Have Wisdom And Virtue Enough To Set So Glorious An Example To Mankind!