It is an old adage that honesty is the best policy-this applies to public as well as private life-to States as well as individuals.

My manner of living is plain. I do not mean to be put out of it. A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready; and such as will be content to partake of them are always welcome. Those, who expect more, will be disappointed, but no change will be effected by it.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

To persevere in one's duty, and be silent is the best answer to calumny

[L]eave nothing to the uncertainty of procuring a warlike apparatus at the moment of public danger.

[T]here is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists . . . an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.

Among many other weighty objections to the Measure, it has been suggested, that it has a tendency to introduce religious disputes into the Army, which above all things should be avoided, and in many instances would compel men to a mode of Worship which they do not profess.