Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!

If your letters are as long as the bible, they will appear short to me. Only let them be brim full of affection.

The failure of one thing is repaired by the success of another.

Government is being founded on opinion, the opinion of the public, even when it is wrong, ought to be respected to a certain degree.

The only true corrective of Constitutional abuses is education.

not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take.

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens . . . There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends and books.