The diminution of public virtue is usually attended with that of public happiness, and the public liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals.

I believe that no people ever yet groaned under the heavy yoke of slavery but when they deserved it.

For no People will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can they easily be subdued, where Knowledge is diffusd and Virtue preservd . On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own Weight, without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

What a glorious morning this is!

Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum.

We cannot make events. Our business is wisely to improve them. Mankind are governed more by their feeling than by reason. Events which excite those feelings will produce wonderful effects.

The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people.