He early adopted two principles, as rules of his political conduct, from which he never deviated,--to seek or solicit no public office, and, to whatever station he might be called by his country, to use no instrument for success or advancement but efficient public service.
Quincy outlines Adams' guiding principles for his political career, emphasizing integrity and public service.
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If its operation should turn out more advantageous to them, it will be more honorable for us; and I never can object to entering formally into an obligation to do that which, upon every virtuous principle, ought to be done without it.
The question raised by Martin Luther involved the whole theory of the rights of individual man, paramount to all human authority.
The seeds of this complicated machine were all sown in the Declaration of Independence; and their fruits can never be eradicated but by the dissolution of the Union.
Can you wonder that they shrink from the light of free discussion--that they skulk from the grasp of freedom and of truth?
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