If virtue & knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great security.

Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.

And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions.

The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people.

What a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be taken from him without his consent.

The right to freedom being the gift of God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.