The Preamble and Bill of Rights, like the rest of our Constitution, were from the pen of John Adams,--among whose published works the whole document, in its original draught, may be found.

The Common Law he had made his own, and mastered well its whole arsenal of Freedom.

As his work, it all claims our regard; and no part bears the imprint of his mind so much as the Preamble and Bill of Rights; nor is any other part authenticated as coming so exclusively from him.

At the time of its first adoption the Massachusetts Bill of Rights was more ample in provisions and more complete in form than any similar declaration in English or Colonial history.

First came, long back in the thirteenth century, Magna Charta, with generous safeguards of Freedom, wrung from King John by the Barons at Runnymede.

This remarkable document, which became the immediate precedent for the whole country, marks an epoch in political history.

Massachusetts and Connecticut had already led the way in that early and most comprehensive Preamble, which has been too little noticed; but in all English Declarations of Rights, and generally even in those of the Colonies, stress was laid…

State after State, ending with California, follows the example of Virginia and Massachusetts, and places its Bill of Rights in the front of its Constitution.

Nor can I doubt that much good is done by this frank assertion of fundamental principles.

The public mind is instructed, people learn to know their rights, liberal institutions are confirmed, and the Constitution is made stable in the hearts of the community.

Bills of Rights are lessons of political wisdom and anchors of liberty.

They are the constant index, and also scourge, of injustice and wrong.

Indeed, the Constitution was openly opposed because it had no Bill of Rights.

It is not difficult to trace most, if not all, of the ideas and provisions of our Preamble and Declaration of Rights to their primitive sources.

With satisfaction I might point to special safeguards by which our rights have been protected against usurpation, whether executive, legislative, or judicial.

With pride I might dwell on those words which banished Slavery from our soil, and rendered the Declaration of Independence here with us a living letter.

In the contemplation of their virtue we derive a lesson which, like truth, may judge us sternly, but, if we can really follow it, like truth, shall make us free.

It may teach us all, though few in numbers or alone, never, by word or act, to swerve from those primal principles of duty, which, from the landing on Plymouth Rock, have been the life of Massachusetts.

Reformers in all ages have had little of blessing from the world they sought to serve.

The Puritans primarily aimed at religious freedom: for this they contended in Parliament, under Elizabeth and James; for this they suffered: but, so connected are all these great and glorious interests, that the struggles for one have…

Thus is prefigured the final triumph of all, however few in numbers, who sincerely devote themselves to Truth.

How poor are all these things by the side of that divine virtue which, amidst the reproach, the obloquy, and the hardness of the world, made them hold fast to Freedom and Truth!

No pusillanimous soul here to-day will declare their self-sacrifice, their deviation from received opinions, their unquenchable thirst for liberty, an error or illusion.

From gushing multitudinous hearts we now thank these lowly men that they dared to be true and brave.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.