Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

Next Monday the Convention in Virginia will assemble; we have still good hopes of its adoption here: though by no great plurality of votes. South Carolina has probably decided favourably before this time. The plot thickens fast. A few short weeks will determine the political fate of America for the present generation, and probably produce no small influence on the happiness of society through a long succession of ages to come.

Let no one go hungry away. If any of the kind of people should be in want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in idleness.

I only wish, while I am a servant of the public, to know the will of my masters, that I may govern my self accordingly.

If we cannot learn wisdom from experience, it is hard to say where it is to be found.

Jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all our public councils for the good government of the Union. In a words, the confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance . . . .

There is no practice more dangerous than that of borrowing money