If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain all the rest

Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money.

We are bound to maintain public liberty, and, by the example of our own systems, to convince the world that order and law, religion and morality, the rights of conscience, the rights of persons, and the rights of property, may all be preserved and secured, in the most perfect manner, by a government entirely and purely elective. If we fail in this, our disaster will be significant, and will furnish an argument, stronger than has yet been found, in support of those opinions which maintain that government can rest safely on nothing but power and coercion.

Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth.

A solemn and religious regard to spiritual and eternal things is an indispensable element of all true greatness.

Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.

Nothing is more deceptive or more dangerous than the pretence of a desire to simplify government. The simplest governments are despotisms; the next simplest, limited monarchies; but all republics, all governments of law, must impose numerous limitations and qualifications of authority, and give many positive and many qualified rights.