All the capital employed in paper speculation is barren and useless, producing, like that on a gaming table, no accession to itself, and is withdrawn from commerce and agriculture where it would have produced addition to the common mass It nourishes in our citizens habits of vice and idleness instead of industry and morality It has furnished effectual means of corrupting such a portion of the legislature as turns the balance between the honest voters whichever way it is directed.

I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom & happiness of man.

It is a cruel thought, that, when we feel ourselves standing on the firmest ground in every respect, the cursed arts of our secret enemies, combining with other causes, should effect, by depreciating our money, what the open arms of a powerful enemy could not.

Still less let it be proposed that our properties within our own territories shall be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.

The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; and he who knows most knows best how little he knows.

Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state'... is absolutely essential in a free society.

None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.