Dependence leads to subservience.

With earnest prayers to all my friends to cherish mutual good will, to promote harmony and conciliation, and above all things to let the love of our country soar above all minor passions, I tender you the assurance of my affectionate esteem and respect.

I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles.

Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree.

A government held together by the bands of reason only, requires much compromise of opinion.

The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.

In a virtuous government, and more especially in times like these, public offices are what they should be - burdens to those appointed to them which it would be wrong to decline, though foreseen to bring them intense labor and great private loss.