Give Credit To Whom Credit

It Bodes Very Ill For Government When Men Are Exalted To Places Of High Trust Through Their Own Solicitations. He Only Fills A Place With Dignity Who Is Invited To It By His Fellow Citizens From The Experience They Have Had Of His Adequate Abilities.

Is It Not High Time For The People Of This Country Explicitly To Declare, Whether They Will Be Freemen Or Slaves? It Is An Important Question Which Ought To Be Decided. It Concerns Us More Than Any Thing In This Life. The Salvation Of Our Souls Is Interested In The Event: For Wherever Tyranny Is Establish'd, Immorality Of Every Kind Comes In Like A Torrent. It Is In The Interest Of Tyrants To Reduce The People To Ignorance And Vice.

In The Midst Of These Pleasing Ideas We Should Be Unfaithful To Ourselves If We Should Ever Lose Sight Of The Danger To Our Liberties If Anything Partial Or Extraneous Should Infect The Purity Of Our Free, Fair, Virtuous, And Independent Elections.

If Men Of Wisdom And Knowledge, Of Moderation And Temperance, Of Patience, Fortitude And Perseverance, Of Sobriety And True Republican Simplicity Of Manners, Of Zeal For The Honour Of The Supreme Being And The Welfare Of The Commonwealth; If Men Possessed Of These Other Excellent Qualities Are Chosen To Fill The Seats Of Government, We May Expect That Our Affairs Will Rest On A Solid And Permanent Foundation.

Let Us Contemplate Our Forefathers, And Posterity, And Resolve To Maintain The Rights Bequeathed To Us From The Former, For The Sake Of The Latter.