Since the death of my father four years ago, our lives have become difficult, and I must help my family.

If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the Convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it.

Paper money has had the effect in your State that it ever will have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open a door to every species of fraud and injustice.

The advancement of agriculture, commerce and manufactures, by all proper means, will not, I trust, need recommendation. But I cannot forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad, as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home.

It is absolutely necessary... for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders.

A good moral character is the first essential. It is highly important not only to be learned but to be virtuous.

I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.