An Act Against The Constitution Is Void;

What Must Be The Wealth That Avarice, Aided By Power, Cannot Exhaust!

May It Please Your Honors: I Was Desired By One Of The Court To Look Into The Books, And Consider The Question Now Before Them Concerning Writs Of Assistance.

And I Take This Opportunity To Declare, That... I Will To My Dying Day Oppose With All The Powers And Faculties God Has Given Me, All Such Instruments Of Slavery On The One Hand, And Villainy On The Other, As This Writ Of Assistance Is. It Appears To Me The Worst Instrument Of Arbitrary Power, - The Most Destructive Of English Liberty And The Fundamental Principles Of Law, That Ever Was Found In An English Law Book.

[slave] Trade ... Is The Most Shocking Violation Of The Law Of Nature, Has A Direct Tendency To Diminish ... Liberty, And Makes Every Dealer In It A Tyrant, From The Director Of An African Company To The Petty Chapman [peddler].... It Is A Clear Truth, That Those Who Every Day Barter Away Other Men's Liberty Will Soon Care Little For Their Own.

I Am Forced To Get My Living By The Labour Of My Hand; And The Sweat Of My Brow... For Bitter Bread, Earned Under The Frowns Of Some Who Have No Natural Or Divine Right To Be Above Me, And Entirely Owe Their Grandeur And Honor To Grinding The Faces Of The Poor.