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.

Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?

It's wonderful what we can do if we're always doing.

We had quitters during the Revolution too...we called them 'Kentuckians.'

The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges...

To the security of a free Constitution it [knowledge] contributes in various ways: by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights, to discern and provide against invasions of them, to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority, between burdens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society.

It is one of the evils of democratical governments, that the people, not always seeing and frequently misled, must often feel before they can act.