[In a republic,] it is not the people themselves who make the decisions, but the people they themselves choose to stand in their places.

The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.

The emigrants although of different parties and different religious sects all flew from persecution in pursuit of liberty.

The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never will stain, our national character. You are considered by them as not only having rendered important service in our own revolution, but as being, on a more extended scale, the friend of human rights, and able advocate of public liberty. To the welfare of Thomas Paine, the Americas are not, nor can they be, indifferent.

National honor is national property of the highest value.

It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and a usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties.

The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil.