Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow that the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest numbers of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best. All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.

What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?

I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

This oration will be read five hundred years hence with as much rapture as it was heard. It ought to be read at the end of every century, and indeed at the end of every year, forever and ever.

We are in the the very midst of a revolution, the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.

Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public.