In our early struggles for liberty, religious freedom could not fail to become a primary object.

Can one generation bind another, and all others, in succession forever? I think not. The Creator has made the earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and powers can only belong to persons, not to things, not to mere matter endowed with will...Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

We will be soldiers, so our sons may be farmers, so their sons may be artists

No man has greater confidence than I have in the spirit of the people, to a rational extent. Whatever they can, they will.

"It astonishes me to find... [that so many] of our countrymen... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. This is a degeneracy in the principles of liberty... which I [would not have expected for at least] four centuries."

Without health there is no happiness. An attention to health, then, should take the place of every other object.

Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate would be, Does he use ardent spirits?