A gentleman of one of the first fortunes upon the continent...sacrificing his ease, and hazarding all in the cause of his country.

America is a friend of freedom everywhere, but a custodian only of our own.

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

The Sermon on the Mount commands me to lay up for myself treasures, not upon earth, but in Heaven. My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ.

America... goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

Our Constitution professedly rests upon the good sense and attachment of the people. This basis, weak as it may appear, has not yet been found to fail.

Is it not that in the chain of human events, the birthday of a nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?