A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a people who mean to be free.

If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.

Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.

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 pledge undying hostility to any government restrictions on the free minds of the people.

Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him.

Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.