Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
Life is of no value but as it brings us gratifications. Among the most valuable of these is rational society. It informs the mind, sweetens the temper, cheers our spirits, and promotes health.
Agreeable society is the first essential in constituting the happiness and of course the value of our existence.
Without society, and a society to our taste, men are never contented.
A nation as a society forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
No slaves shall keep any arms whatever, nor pass, unless with written orders from his master or employer, or in his company, with arms from one place to another. (A Bill Concerning Slaves)
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.
This abomination must have an end. And there is a superior bench reserved in Heaven for those who hasten it.
No defender of slavery, I concede that it has its benevolent aspects in lifting the Negro from savagery and helping prepare him for that eventual freedom which is surely written in the Book of Fate.
But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.
