I regret, as much as any member, the unavoidable weight and duration of the burdens to be imposed; having never been a proselyte to the doctrine, that public debts are public benefits. I consider them, on the contrary, as evils which ought to be removed as fast as honor and justice will permit.

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.

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

[Religious liberty was] in its nature an inalienable right ... because the opinions of men, depending only upon the evidence contemplated by their minds, cannot follow the dictates of other men.

The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it.

Our Constitution represents the work of the finger of Almighty God.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.