Happy, thrice happy shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed any thing, who have performed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabrick of Freedom and Empire on the broad basis of Independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of humane nature and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.

Serious misfortunes, originating in misrepresentation, frequently flow and spread before they can be dissipated by truth.

What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious.

It is . . . [the citizens] choice, and depends upon their conduct, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptable and miserable as a Nation. This is the time of their political probation; this is the moment when the eyes of the World are turned upon them.

I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.

The tumultuous populace of large cities are ever to be dreaded.

A half-starved limping government, always moving upon crutches and tottering at every step.