The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.

It is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles; and it is honorable for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions.

I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.

Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose are to provide for defense by all those means to which our resources are competent.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate power of the society but the people themselves.

I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking of the Union into two or more parts.