I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies. He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth.
It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. Power is not alluring to pure minds. In matters of power let no more be heard of the confidence in man but bind them down from mischief by the chains of the constitution. The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind. Thank you for your interest in the history of the greatest nation that has defended freedom for the entire world.