A Well-regulated Militia, Being Necessary To The

The Belief In A God All Powerful Wise And Good, Is So Essential To The Moral Order Of The World And To The Happiness Of Man, That Arguments Which Enforce It Cannot Be Drawn From Too Many Sources Nor Adapted With Too Much Solicitude To The Different Characters And Capacities Impressed With It.

Should Ardent Spirits Be Everywhere Banished From The List Of Drinks, It Will Be A Revolution Not The Least Remarkable In This Revolutionary Age, And Our Country Will Have Its Full Share In That As In Other Merits.

The General Government Is Proscribed From The Interfering, In Any Manner Whatsoever, In Matters Respecting Religion; And It May Be Thought To Do This, In Ascertaining Who, And Who Are Not, Ministers Of The Gospel.

The First Question That Offers Itself Is, Whether The General Form And Aspect Of The Government Be Strictly Republican? It Is Evident That No Other Form Would Be Reconcileable With The Genius Of The People Of America; With The Fundamental Principles Of The Revolution; Or With That Honourable Determination Which Animates Every Votary Of Freedom, To Rest All Our Political Experiments On The Capacity Of Mankind For Self-government.

No Man Can Be A Competent Legislator Who Does Not Add To An Upright Intention And A Sound Judgment A Certain Degree Of Knowledge Of The Subject On Which He Is To Legislate.