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.

I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.

A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.

Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power.

Congress has scarcely any thing to employ them, and complain that the place [Washington, D.C.] is remarkably dull.

For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.

Lake George is without comparison, the most beautiful water I ever saw; formed by a contour of mountains into a basin... finely interspersed with islands, its water limpid as crystal, and the mountain sides covered with rich groves... down to the water-edge: here and there precipices of rock to checker the scene and save it from monotony.