We act not for ourselves but for the whole human race. The event of our experiment is to show whether man can be trusted with self - government.

Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular.

Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them.

It will take a thousand years for the frontier to reach the Pacific

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.

The Declaration of Independence . . . [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man.