Still we did not expect to be without rubs and difficulties; and we have had them. First the detention of Western posts: then the coalition of Pilnitz, outlawing our commerce with France, and the British enforcement of the outlawry. In your day French depredations; in mine English, and the Berlin and Milan decrees: now the English orders of council, and the piracies they authorize. When these shall be over, it will the impressment of our seamen, or something else; and so we have gone on, and so we shall go on, puzzled and prospering beyond example in the history of man.

I have but one system of ethics for men and for nations - to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements under all circumstances, to be open and generous, promoting in the long run even the interests of both

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

The President is bound to stop at the limits prescribed by our Constitution and law to the authorities in his hands, [and this] would apply in an occasion of peace as well as war.

Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.

To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.