The praise of a civilized world is justly due to Christianity;—war, by the influence of the humane principles of that religion, has been stripped of half its horrors. The French renounce Christianity, and they relapse into barbarism;—war resumes the same hideous and savage form which it wore in the ages of Gothic and Roman violence.

If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy.

The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.

But though a funded debt is not in the first instance, an absolute increase of Capital, or an augmentation of real wealth; yet by serving as a New power in the operation of industry, it has within certain bounds a tendency to increase the real wealth of a Community, in like manner as money borrowed by a thrifty farmer, to be laid out in the improvement of his farm may, in the end, add to his Stock of real riches.

[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties.

The system is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit.

[W]e must extend the authority of the Union to the persons of the citizens - the only proper objects of government.