Liberty Will Not Long Survive The Total

The Liberties Of Our Country, The Freedoms Of Our Civil Constitution Are Worth Defending At All Hazards; It Is Our Duty To Defend Them Against All Attacks. We Have Received Them As A Fair Inheritance From Our Worthy Ancestors. They Purchased Them For Us With Toil And Danger And Expense Of Treasure And Blood. It Will Bring A Mark Of Everlasting Infamy On The Present Generation – Enlightened As It Is – If We Should Suffer Them To Be Wrested From Us By Violence Without A Struggle, Or To Be Cheated Out Of Them By The Artifices Of Designing Men.

For No People Will Tamely Surrender Their Liberties, Nor Can They Easily Be Subdued, Where Knowledge Is Diffusd And Virtue Preservd . On The Contrary, When People Are Universally Ignorant And Debauched In Their Manners, They Will Sink Under Their Own Weight, Without The Aid Of Foreign Invaders.

I Would Advise Persisting In Our Struggle For Liberty, Though It Were Revealed From Heaven That Nine Hundred And Ninety-nine Men Were To Perish, And Only One Of A Thousand To Survive And Retain His Liberty. One Such Freeman Must Possess More Virtue, And Enjoy More Happiness, Than A Thousand Slaves.

I Thank God That I Have Lived To See My Country Independent And Free. She May Long Enjoy Her Independence And Freedom If She Will. It Depends On Her Virtue.

Our Union Is Now Complete; Our Constitution Composed, Established, And Approved. You Are Now The Guardians Of Your Own Liberties.