The court was then adjourned, on account of the riotous disorders of the preceding night, and universal confusion of the town, to the 15th of October following.
Learn wisdom from the present times ! O ye sons of Ambition ! beware lest a thirst of power prompt you to enslave your country ! O ye sons of Avarice ! beware lest the thirst for gold excite you to enslave your native country ! O ye sons of Popularity ! beware lest a thirst for applause move you groundlessly to inflame the minds of the people ! For the end of slavery is misery to the world, your country, fellow- citizens, and children ; the end of popular rage, destruction, desolation, and ruin.
Who, that sees the fury and instability of the populace, but would seek protection under the arm of power? Who, that beholds the tyranny and oppression of arbitrary power, but would lose his life in defence of his liberty? Who, that marks the riotous tumult, confusion, and uproar of a democratic, the slavery and distress of a despotic, state, — the infinite miseries attendant on both, — but would fly for refuge from the mad rage of the one, and oppressive power of the other, to that best asylum, that glorious medium, the British Constitution? Happy people who enjoy this blessed constitution ! Happy, thrice happy people, if ye preserve it inviolate ! May ye never lose it through a licentious abuse of your invaluable rights and blood-purchased liberties ! May ye never forfeit it by a tame and infamous submission to the yoke of slavery and lawless despotism !
"Remember, O my friends ! the laws, the rights,
The generous plan of power delivered down,
From age to age, by your renowned forefathers,
So dearly bought, the price of so much blood :
Oh ! let it never perish in your hands,
But piously transmit it to your children.
Do thou, great Liberty ! inspire our souls,
And make our lives in thy possession happy,
Or our death glorious in thy just defence."
From the diary of Josiah Quincy, Jr., in Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, 1858-1860 (Boston, 1860), 47-51.
