[My] pillar of support through life.... I can say conscientiously that I do not know in the world a man of purer integrity, more dispassionate, disinterested, and devoted to genuine Republicanism; nor could I in the whole scope of America and Europe point out an abler head.

It is better to have no ideas than false ones.

One never really knows how much one has been touched by a place until one has left it.

By oft repeating an untruth, men come to believe it themselves.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

Bind them down by the chains of the Constitution where they can do no mischief.

I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors & perils begat mutual confidence and influence.