If The Public Are Bound To Yield

It Is In The Interest Of Tyrants To Reduce The People To Ignorance And Vice. For They Cannot Live In Any Country Where Virtue And Knowledge Prevail. The Religion And Public Liberty Of A People Are Intimately Connected; Their Interests Are Interwoven, They Cannot Subsist Separately; And Therefore They Rise And Fall Together. For This Reason, It Is Always Observable, That Those Who Are Combin'd To Destroy The People's Liberties, Practice Every Art To Poison Their Morals.

The Diminution Of Public Virtue Is Usually Attended With That Of Public Happiness, And The Public Liberty Will Not Long Survive The Total Extinction Of Morals.

If Virtue & Knowledge Are Diffused Among The People, They Will Never Be Enslav'd. This Will Be Their Great Security.

In A State Of Tranquility, Wealth, And Luxury, Our Descendants Would Forget The Arts Of War And The Noble Activity And Zeal Which Made Their Ancestors Invincible. Every Art Of Corruption Would Be Employed To Loosen The Bond Of Union Which Renders Our Resistance Formidable. When The Spirit Of Liberty Which Now Animates Our Hearts And Gives Success To Our Arms Is Extinct, Our Numbers Will Accelerate Our Ruin And Render Us Easier Victims To Tyranny.

Nothing Is More Essential To The Establishment Of Manners In A State Than That All Persons Employed In Places Of Power And Trust Must Be Men Of Unexceptionable Characters.