Political Quotes

On the record
And where is the degree of vice or immorality which shall deprive the citizen of the right to supplicate for a boon, or to pray for mercy?
Said by
Josiah Quincy
Federalist · Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Quincy emphasizes the fundamental right of citizens to petition for mercy, regardless of their moral standing.

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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…

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The pride of Britain itself must bend to the course of events.

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If there is a Bostonian who ever sailed from his own harbor for distant lands, or returned to it from them, without feelings, at the sight of the Blue Hills, which he is unable to express, his heart is differently constituted from mine.

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