Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from...the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence.

There is something about men more capable of shaking despotic power than lightening, whirlwind, or earthquake, that is, the threatened indignation of the whole civilized world.

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

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

The hand that destroys the Constitution rends our Union asunder forever.

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions

The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of religion, of special revelation from God; but it is also a book which teaches man his own individual responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow - man.