25 Quotes by John Dickinson

If the General Government should be left dependent on the State Legislatures, it would be happy for us if we had never met in this room.

Our cause is just. Our union is perfect.

Government has hardened into a tyrannical monopoly, and the human race in general becomes as absolutely property as beasts in the plow.

Our liberties do not come from charters; for these are only the declaration of pre-existing rights. They do not depend on parchments or seals; but come from the King of Kings and the Lord of all the earth.

Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness... We claim them from a higher source - from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth. They are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence, which establish the laws of our nature. They are born with us; exist with us; and cannot be taken from us by any human power, without taking our lives.

No free people ever existed, or can ever exist, without keeping the purse strings in their own hands. Where this is the case, they have a constitutional check upon the administration, which may thereby by brought into order without violence. But when such a power is not lodged in the people, oppression proceeds uncontrolled in its career, till the governed, transported into rage, seek redress in the midst of blood and confusion.

The rights essential to happiness. . . . We claim them from a higher source - from the King of kings and Lord of all the earth.

Let us take care of our rights and we therein take care of our prosperity. Slavery is ever preceded by sleep

Experience must be our only guide. Reason may mislead us.