We do not mean to count or weigh our contributions by any standard other than that of our abilities.

May it be to the world... to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both body and mind.

Government can do something for the people only in proportion as it can do something to the people.

I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives. For it is in our lives, and not from our works, that our religion must be read.

Morals were too essential to the happiness of man, to be risked on the uncertain combinations of the head. Nature laid their foundation, therefore, in sentiment, not in science.

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have remover their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.