"The chief duty of governments, in so far as they are coercive, is to restrain those who would interfere with the inalienable rights of the individual, among which are the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the pursuit of happiness, and the right to worship God according to the dictates of one's conscience." 

-William Jennings Bryan 

"The people are the best guardians of their own rights and it is the duty of their executive branch to abstain from interfering in or thwarting the sacred exercise of the lawmaking functions of their government."

- William Henry Harrison 

"You are further to declare that we hold sacred the rights of conscience, and may promise to the whole people, solemnly in our name, the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion. And... that all civil rights and the rights to hold office were to be extended to person's of any Christian denomination."

- Roger Sherman

"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 parchment 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, with out taking our lives."

- John Dickinson