Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Saviour?

From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for the future.

What is the right of the huntsman to the forest of a thousand miles over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey? Shall the fields and vallies, which a beneficent God has formed to teem with the life of innumerable multitudes, be condemned to everlasting barrenness?

The public history of all countries, and all ages, is but a sort of mask, richly colored. The interior working of the machinery must be foul.

In what light soever we regard the Bible, whether with reference to revelation, to history, or to morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.

I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.

The political system of the United States is essentially extra-European. To stand in firm and cautious independence of all entanglement in the European system has been a cardinal point of their policy under every administration of their government from the peace of 1783 to this day...Every year's experience rivets it more deeply in the principles and opinions of the nation.