No power but Congress can declare war, but what is the value of this constitutional provision, if the President of his own authority may make such military movements as must bring on war?

On the diffusion of education among the people rest the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions.

The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.

Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.

The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.

The most important thought that ever occupied my mind is that of my individual responsibility to God.

I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever.