I own myself the friend to a very free system of commerce, and hold it as a truth, that commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive and impolitic - it is also a truth, that if industry and labour are left to take their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are the most productive, and this in a more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the most enlightened legislature could point out.

Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

The people shall not be restrained from peacefully assembling and consulting for their common good, nor from applying to the legislature by petitions, or remonstrances for redress of their grievances.

Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

Nor is any evidence to be found, either in History or Human Nature, that nations are to be bribed out of a spirit of encroachment and aggression, by humiliations which nourish their pride, or by concessions that extend their resources and power.

The express authority of the people alone could give validity to the Constitution.