They stand for an individual right that is inalienable.

A majority has no right to annul it, and no power to destroy it.

Tyrannies may persecute, slay, or banish those who defend it; the thing is indestructible.

It does not need legions to protect it nor genius to proclaim it, though the poets have always glorified it, and the legions will ultimately acknowledge it.

One man alone may vindicate it, and because that one man has never failed it has never died.