If Men Were Angels, No Government Would

It May Be Considered As An Objection Inherent In The Principle, That As Every Appeal To The People Would Carry An Implication Of Some Defect In The Government, Frequent Appeals Would In Great Measure Deprive The Government Of That Veneration Which Time Bestows On Every Thing, And Without Which Perhaps The Wisest And Freest Governments Would Not Possess The Requisite Stability . . . A Constitutional Road To The Decision Of The People Ought To Be Marked Out And Kept Open, For Certain Great And Extraordinary Occasions

The Personal Right To Acquire Property, Which Is A Natural Right, Gives To Property, When Acquired, A Right To Protection, As A Social Right.

The Religion Then Of Every Man Must Be Left To The Conviction And Conscience Of Every Man; And It Is The Right Of Every Man To Exercise It As These May Dictate.

The Latent Causes Of Faction Are Thus Sown In The Nature Of Man; And We See Them Everywhere Brought Into Different Degrees Of Activity, According To The Different Circumstances Of Civil Society.

It Is A Misfortune, Inseparable From Human Affairs, That Public Measures Are Rarely Investigated With That Spirit Of Moderation Which Is Essential To A Just Estimate Of Their Real Tendency To Advance Or Obstruct The Public Good; And That This Spirit Is More Apt To Be Diminished Than Prompted, By Those Occasions Which Require An Unusual Exercise Of It.