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.

The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace.

Legislators invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind.

Amplification is the vice of modern oratory. It is an insult to an assembly of reasonable men, disgusting and revolting instead ofpersuading. Speeches measured by the hour, die by the hour.

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

My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses.

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.