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.

In wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do

While we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess, and to observe, the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to them whose minds have not yielded to the evidence which has convinced us.

The liberty, prosperity, and the happiness of our country will always be the object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good.

A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue.

Our country may be likened to a new house. We lack many things, but we possess the most precious of all - liberty!

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