It has also been a great solace to me, to believe that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings of self-government, which we had assisted too in acquiring for them. If ever the earth has beheld a system of administration conducted with a single and steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never know reproach, it is that to which our lives have been devoted.

It is my disposition to maintain peace until its condition shall be made less tolerable than that of war itself.

Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error.

Experience has proved to us that a dollar of silver disappears for every dollar of paper emitted.

The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.

Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.

I believe the states can best govern our home concerns, and the general government our foreign ones.