A certain degree of preparation for war . . . affords also the best security for the continuance of peace.

A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.

We have the self-evident right to regulate our trade according to our own will and our own interest . . . . This right can be denied to no independent nation.

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

Experience has instructed us that no skill in the science of government has yet been able to discriminate and define, with sufficient certainty, its three great provinces the legislative, executive, and judiciary; or even the privileges and powers of the different legislative branches.

A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of Renown and Bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.