That, in three-score years from the day of the Declaration of Independence, its self-evident truths should be yet struggling for existence against the degeneracy of an age pampered with prosperity, and languishing into servitude, is a melancholy truth, from which I should in vain attempt to shut my eyes.
Quincy reflects on the ongoing struggle for the principles of the Declaration of Independence even after many years.
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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.
Union!' be this the watchword of your camp; and if Ate, hot from hell, will come and cry 'Havoc!' fight--fight and conquer, under the banner of universal freedom.
May the Ruler of the universe preserve you from such degradation! 'Freedom!
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…
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