166.] "Nor would I have you to mistake in the point of your own liberty.
There is a liberty of a corrupt nature which is effected both by men and beasts to do what they list, and this liberty is inconsistent with authority, impatient of all restraint; by this liberty 'sumus omnes deteriores': 'tis the grand enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God are bent against it.

But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty which is the proper end and object of authority; it is a liberty for that only which is just and good: for this liberty you are to stand with the hazard of your very lives and whatsoever crosses it is not authority, but a distemper thereof.

This liberty is maintained in a way of subjection to authority; and the authority set over you will, in all administrations for your good, be quietly submitted unto by all but such as have a disposition to shake off the yoke and lose their true liberty, by their murmuring at the honor and power of authority." The remarks I have made will suffice to display the character of Anglo-American civilization in its true light.

It is the result (and this should be constantly present to the mind of two distinct elements), which in other places have been in frequent hostility, but which in America have been admirably incorporated and combined with one another.
I allude to the spirit of Religion and the spirit of Liberty.
The settlers of New England were at the same time ardent sectarians and daring innovators.

Narrow as the limits of some of their religious opinions were, they were entirely free from political prejudices.