viciousness

Founding-era definition · Webster's 1828 American Dictionary

VI'CIOUSNESS, noun 1. Addictedness to vice; corruptness of moral principles or practice; habitual violation of the moral law, or of moral duties; depravity in principles or in manners. What makes a governor justly despised, is viciousness and ill morals. 2. Unruliness; refractoriness; as of a beast.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI

More founding-era words: liberty · virtue · republic · justice · providence · commerce · militia · arms · prudence · establishment · religion · usurpation · tyranny · citizen · unalienable · sovereign