4669. LIBERTY, Degeneracy and.—
It
astonishes me to find such a change wrought
in the opinions of our countrymen since I
left them, as that three-fourths of them should
be contented to live under a system which
leaves to their governors the power of taking
from them the trial by jury in civil cases,
freedom of religion, freedom of the press,
freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws,
and of yoking them with a standing army.
This is a degeneracy in the principles of liberty
to which I had given four centuries instead
of four years.—
To William Stephens Smith.
Ford ed., v, 3.
(P.
Feb. 1788)
