I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them. ... This has in a great degree been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit.

Private enterprise manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal.

War is not the best engine for us to resort to; nature has given us one in our commerce, which if properly managed, will be a better instrument for obliging the interested nations of Europe to treat us with justice.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

In America, no other distinction between man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office exercising powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last, the poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and generally on a more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar.

Agriculture is at the same time the most tranquil, healthy, and independent occupation.