It Is When A People Forget God,

I Shall Act As I Think My Duty Requires.

You Are Not To Inquire How Your Trade May Be Increased, Nor How You Are To Become A Great And Powerful People, But How Your Liberties Can Be Secured; For Liberty Ought To Be The Direct End Of Your Government.

I Have The Highest Veneration Of Those Gentleman, -- But, Sir, Give Me Leave To Demand, What Right Had They To Say, We, The People? My Political Curiosity, Exclusive Of My Anxious Solicitude For The Public Welfare, Leads Me To Ask Who Authorized Them To Speak The Language Of, We, The People, Instead Of We, The States? States Are The Characteristics, And The Soul Of The Confederation. If The States Be Not The Agents Of This Compact, It Must Be One Of Great Consolidated National Government Of The People Of All The States.

Are We At Last Brought To Such An Humiliating And Debasing Degradation, That We Cannot Be Trusted With Arms For Our Defense?

I Believe A Time Will Come When An Opportunity Will Be Offered To Abolish This Lamentable Evil. Everything We Do Is To Improve It, If It Happens In Our Day; If Not, Let Us Transmit To Our Descendants, Together With Our Slaves, A Pity For Their Unhappy Lot And An Abhorrence Of Slavery.