E. Opinion and Conscience
1. 1756 July 25, Sunday: Adams ( age 20) Diary
“Good sense will make us remember that others have as good a right to think for themselves and to speak their own Opinions as I have, that another mans making a silly Speech, does not warrant my ill nature and Pride in grasping the Opportunity to ridicule him, and show my Witt.”
2. 1801: Jefferson (1743-1826) First Inaugural Address:
"If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it”. [C30 p13]
3. 1824 April: Jefferson to Edward Livingson
“A government held together by the bonds of reason only requires much compromise of opinion; that things even salutary should not be crammed down the throats of dissenting brethren, especially when they may be put into a form to be willingly swallowed, and that a great deal of indulgence is necessary to strengthen habits of harmony and fraternity.” [R118v16 p23]
4. Jefferson (1743-1826)
"…it is honorable for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinion." [R118 v4 p10]
5. 1787-88 Madison, Federalist Paper, No. 14
“Is it not the glory of the people of America, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience?” [B30 p104]
6. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813)
“His opinions are as honestly formed as my own. Our different views of the same subjects are the results of the difference in our organization and experience. I have never withdrawn from any man upon that account.” [B191 p199]