Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. How necessary was the care of the Creator in making the moral principle so much a part of our constitution as that no errors reasoning or of speculation might lead us astray from its observance in practice. Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Freedom of the person under the protection of habeas corpus. I deem one of the essential principles of our government. Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to...the general prey of the rich on the poor. That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state. |