Good conscience is the most valuable asset of all!

In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.

Power is of an encroaching nature.

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

[The public has] the habit now of invalidating opinions emanating from me by reference to my age and infirmities.

A people armed and free, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition and is a bulwark for the nation against foreign invasion and domestic oppression.

The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.