To take a single step beyond the boundaries specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to definition.

I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.

No country and no people can be free and ignorant at the same time.

I value peace, and I should unwillingly see any event take place which would render war a necessary resource.

I would rather have newspapers without a government than a government without newspapers.

Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.

None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.