Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.
That peace, safety, and concord may be the portion of our native land, and be long enjoyed by our fellow-citizens, is the most ardent wish of my heart, and if I can be instrumental in procuring or preserving them, I shall think I have not lived in vain.
Delay is preferable to error.
Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.
I have never believed there was one code of morality for a public and another for a private man.
A republican government is slow to move, yet once in motion it's momentum becomes irresistible.
When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.
A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation.
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.