The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.

The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.

We electors have an important constitutional power placed in our hands; we have a check upon two branches of the legislature.

I do not like the reappearance of the Jesuits... Nevertheless, we are compelled by our system of religious toleration to offer them an asylum.

America is destined to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs.

It's of more importance to community that innocence should be protected than it is that guilt should be punished

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.