"In Britain, where the maxims of freedom were still known, but where luxury and dissipation had diminished the wonted reverence for them, the attack has been carried on in a more secret and indirect manner: Corruption has been employed to undermine them. The Americans are not enervated by effeminacy, like the inhabitants of India; nor debauched by luxury, like those of Great Britain: It was, therefore judged improper to assail them by bribery, or by undisguised force. Plausible systems were formed; specious pretenses were made: All the arts of sophistry were tried to shew that the British ministry had by law a right to enslave us. The first and best maxims of the constitution, venerable to Britons and Americans were perverted and profaned." Address to the Assembly of Jamaica, Delivered in general Congress, July 25, 1775.
As the Congress explained to the Jamaicans, the character of Americans are not so indolent as to slide into tyranny by cheap trinkets. Likewise, a show of force will only engender armed resistance. The sure path to our destruction is corruption - of our character and our Constitution. That is why we must be ever vigilant.
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