Certainly…it ought to be the happiness and the glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the utmost unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinions high respect; their business unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasure, his satisfactions to theirs-and above all, and in all cases, to prefer their interests to his own. But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgement, his enlightenment and conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you or to any man, or any set of living men. These he does not derive from your pleasure-no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you not his industry only, but his judgement: and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
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