Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty?

The first thing I have at heart is American liberty; the second thing is American union.

Adversity toughens manhood, and the characteristic of the good or the great man is not that he has been exempt from the evils of life, but that he has surmounted them.

For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.

If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained - we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ will give them one which will make them rich indeed.