Despotism Can Only Exist In Darkness.

Torrents Of Blood Have Been Spilt In The Old World, By Vain Attempts Of The Secular Arm, To Extinguish Religious Discord, By Proscribing All Difference In Religious Opinion. Time Has At Length Revealed The True Remedy. Every Relaxation Of Narrow And Rigorous Policy, Wherever It Has Been Tried, Has Been Found To Assuage The Disease.

I Go By The Great Republican Principle, That The People Will Have The Virtue And Intelligence To Select Men Of Virtue And Wisdom [to The Offices Of Government].

The Truth Was That All Men Having Power Ought To Be Distrusted To A Certain Degree.

No Man Will Subject Himself To The Ridicule Of Pretending That Any Natural Connection Subsists Between The Sun Or The Seasons, And The Period Within Which Human Virtue Can Bear The Temptations Of Power. Happily For Mankind, Liberty Is Not, In This Respect, Confined To Any Single Point Of Time, But Lies Within Extremes, Which Afford Sufficient Latitude For All The Variations Which May Be Required By The Various Situations And Circumstances Of Civil Society.

Resolved, That The General Assembly Of Virginia, Doth Unequivocally Express A Firm Resolution To Maintain And Defend The Constitution Of The United States, And The Constitution Of This State, Against Every Aggression Either Foreign Or Domestic, And That They Will Support The Government Of The United States In All Measures Warranted By The Former.