The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil
Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our
duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them
as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors; they purchased
them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and
blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It
will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present
generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be
wrested from us by violence without a struggle or to be cheated
out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Samuel
Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, V. II (1770 – 1773),
collected and edited by Harry Alonso Cushing Note: Sam Adams was
an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States. As a politician in
colonial Massachusetts, Adams was a leader of the movement that
became the American Revolution, and was one of the architects of
the principles of American republic