I enclose to you a copy of the declaration of independence as agreed to by the House, and also, as originally framed. You will judge whether it is the better or worse for the Critics.

Born in the same land, we ought to live as brothers, doing to each other all the good we can, and not listening to wicked men, who may endeavor to make us enemies. By living in peace, we can help and prosper one another; by waging war, we can kill and destroy many on both sides; but those who survive will not be the happier for that.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.

From the nature of things, every society must at all times possess within itself the sovereign powers of legislation.

And where else will [Hume,] this degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow men, find the origin of just powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will it be in the minority? Or in an individual of that minority?

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.