The Government Of The United States Of

To Suppose Arms In The Hands Of Citizens, To Be Used At Individual Discretion, Except In Private Self-defense, Or By Partial Orders Of Towns, Counties Or Districts Of A State, Is To Demolish Every Constitution, And Lay The Laws Prostrate, So That Liberty Can Be Enjoyed By No Man; It Is A Dissolution Of The Government. The Fundamental Law Of The Militia Is, That It Be Created, Directed And Commanded By The Laws, And Ever For The Support Of The Laws.

You Will Think Me Transported With Enthusiasm But I Am Not. — I Am Well Aware Of The Toil And Blood And Treasure, That It Will Cost Us To Maintain This Declaration, And Support And Defend These States. — Yet Through All The Gloom I Can See The Rays Of Ravishing Light And Glory. I Can See That The End Is More Than Worth All The Means. And That Posterity Will Tryumph In That Days Transaction, Even Altho We Should Rue It, Which I Trust In God We Shall Not.

I Almost Shudder At The Thought Of Alluding To The Most Fatal Example Of The Abuses Of Grief Which The History Of Mankind Has Preserved - The Cross. Consider What Calamities That Engine Of Grief Has Produced!

I Have Accepted A Seat In The House Of Representatives, And Thereby Have Consented To My Own Ruin, To Your Ruin, And To The Ruin Of Our Children. I Give You This Warning That You May Prepare Your Mind For Your Fate.

I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessing On This House, And On All That Shall Hereafter Inhabit It. May None But Honest And Wise Men Ever Rule Under This Roof!