Like all other blessings, which are our portion in this world, civil freedom is liable to gross perversion and abuse. It is the nature of man to be dissatisfied with present advantages and to seek for those which are ideal; or which are incompatible with social and moral obligation...Without the restrictions of law and government, this important boon would become the scourge of mankind; and the world would be converted into a theatre of violence and blood. --Alden Bradford, 1804
