The Great Object Is That Every Man

Suffer Not Yourselves To Be Betrayed With A Kiss. Ask Yourselves How This Gracious Reception Of Our Petition Comports With Those Warlike Preparations Which Cover Our Waters And Darken Our Land. Are Fleets And Armies Necessary To A Work Of Love And Reconciliation? Have We Shown Ourselves So Unwilling To Be Reconciled, That Force Must Be Called In To Win Back Our Love? Let Us Not Deceive Ourselves, Sir. These Are The Implements Of War And Subjugationthe Last Arguments To Which Kings Resort.

The Officers Of Congress, May Come Upon You Now, Fortified With All The Terrors Of Paramount Federal Authority. Excisemen Taxmen May Come In Multitudes; For The Limitation Of Their Numbers No Man Knows. They May, Unless The General Government Be Restrained ... Go Into Your Cellars And Rooms, And Search, Ransack, And Measure, Everything You Eat, Drink, And Wear.

Bad Men Cannot Make Good Citizens. It Is When A People Forget God That Tyrants Forge Their Chains. A Vitiated State Of Morals, A Corrupted Public Conscience, Is Incompatible With Freedom. No Free Government, Or The Blessings Of Liberty, Can Be Preserved To Any People But By A Firm Adherence To Justice, Moderation, Temperance, Frugality, And Virtue; And By A Frequent Recurrence To Fundamental Principles.

They Tell Us, Sir, That We Are Weak; Unable To Cope With So Formidable An Adversary. But When Shall We Be Stronger? Will It Be The Next Week, Or The Next Year? Will It Be When We Are Totally Disarmed, And When A British Guard Shall Be Stationed In Every House?

[our Constitution] Is An Instrument For The People To Restrain The Government.