I adhere to the right of petition; and let me say here that, let the petition be, as the gentleman from Virginia has stated, from free negroes, prostitutes, as he supposes,--for he says there is one put on this paper, and he infers that the rest are of the same description,--that has not altered my opinion at all.
Quincy defends the right to petition regardless of the petitioners' backgrounds or character.
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Though conscious, being then in his seventy-eighth year, that he stood on the threshold of human life, he sought no relaxation from duty, no exemption from its performance.
Adams replied: "I have no hesitation to say I hold that act unconstitutional and void.
His spirit of liberty was fostered and inspired by the writings of Milton, Sydney, and Locke, of which the American Declaration of Independence was an emanation, and the constitution of the United States, with the exception of the clauses…
The spirit of freedom and the spirit of slavery are drawing together for the deadly conflict of arms.
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