I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

No stile of writing is so delightful as that which is all pith, which never omits a necessary word, nor uses an unnecessary one.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.

I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.

It is every Americans' right and obligation to read and interpret the Constitution for himself.

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