Rufus King
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, American Founding Era, Rufus King
“I myself have been an advocate for a Government free as air,” said Rufus King of Massachusetts, brilliant Harvard-trained lawyer and statesmen. But, he added, “my opinions have been established upon the belief that my countrymen were … governed by a sense of Right and Wrong. I have ever feared that if our Republican Government were subverted, it would be by the influence of commerce and the progress of luxury. But if in opposition to these sentiments the great body of the people are without Virtue, and not governed by any internal Restraints of Conscience, there is … room to fear that the Framers of our constitutions and laws have proceeded on principles that do not exist, and that America, which the Friends of Freedom have looked to as an Asylum when persecuted, will not afford that refuge.”
Liberty Letters is a project of The Moral Liberal. Compiled, and edited (with occasional commentary) by Steve Farrell.
