I do believe that General Washington had not a firm confidence in the durability of our government. He was naturally distrustful of men, and inclined to gloomy apprehensions; and I was ever persuaded that a belief that we must at length end in something like a British constitution, had some weight in his adoption of the ceremonies of levees, birthdays, pompous meetings with Congress, and other forms of the same character, calculated to prepare us gradually for a change which he believed possible, and to let it come on with as little shock as might be to the public mind.

A system of general instruction, which shall reach every description of our citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest, of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest.

The Christian god is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust.

Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

[A] spirit of justice and friendly accomodation...is our duty and our interest to cultivate with all nations.

Laws abridging the natural right of the citizen should be restrained by rigorous constructions within their narrowest limits.

The clergy believe that any power confided in me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes, and they believe rightly.