History has shown that at least one-half of every century is consumed in war.

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.

History has shown that at least one-half of every century is consumed in war.

How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.

Preparation for war is a constant stimulus to suspicion and ill will.

There is every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are capable.

Let us by wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties.