I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.

[I]n Great-Britain it is said that their constitution relies on the house of commons for honesty, and the lords for wisdom; whichwould be a rational reliance if honesty were to be bought with money, and if wisdom were hereditary.

New York, like London, seems to be a cloacina [toilet] of all the depravities of human nature.

The people are the ultimate guardians of their own liberties. In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy . . . Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone.

As government grows, freedom recedes.

I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.

The rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.