Should [reformers] attempt more than the established habits of the people are ripe for, they may lose all and retard indefinitely the ultimate object of their aim.

To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself.

Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.

Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself.

I hold it to be one of the distinguishing excellences of elective over hereditary successions that the talents which nature has provided in sufficient proportion, should be selected by the society for the govenment of their affairs, rather than that this should be be transmitted through the loins of knaves and fools passing from the debauches of the table to those of the bed.

Defend our liberties and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindred and tongues.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.