Should the States reject this excellent Constitution, the probability is, an opportunity will never again offer to cancel another in peacethe next will be drawn in blood.

I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see the policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery.

A bad war is fought with a good mind.

Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.

Precedents are dangerous things; let the rein of government then be braced and held with a steady hand.

In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude.

The inducements of interest for observing [neutral] conduct . . . has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.