Historical voices

She viewed the hive, and disregarding the industry that had enriched it, thirsted for the honey.

The fertile fields and prosperous infancy of America appeared to her as mines for tributary wealth.

The sordid and not the splendid passions gave it being.

The war, on the part of Britain, was originally a war of covetousness.

So extensively right was the ground on which America proceeded, that it not only took in every just and liberal sentiment which could impress the heart, but made it the direct interest of every class and order of men to defend the country.

In this indulgence of generous recollection, we become gainers by what we seem to give, and the more we bestow the richer we become.

The principles deserve to be remembered, and to remember them rightly is repossessing them.

To trace over in imagination the purity of the cause, the voluntary sacrifices that were made to support it, and all the various turnings of the war in its defence, is at once both paying and receiving respect.

IT IS impossible to sit down and think seriously on the affairs of America, but the original principles upon which she resisted, and the glow and ardor which they inspired, will occur like the undefaced remembrance of a lovely scene.

The man that does not now feel for the honor of the best and noblest cause that ever a country engaged in, and exert himself accordingly, is no longer worthy of a peaceable residence among a people determined to be free.

Thus aided and thus supported, disaffection will decline, and the withered head of tyranny expire in America.

America, rich in patriotism and produce, can want neither men nor supplies, when a serious necessity calls them forth.

To spare now, would be the height of extravagance, and to consult present ease, would be to sacrifice it perhaps forever.

The necessity of the case, and the importance of the consequences, admit no delay from a friend, no apology from an enemy.

Not an ability ought now to sleep, that can produce but a mite to the general good, nor even a whisper to pass that militates against it.

All the conquest that a besieged town can hope for, is, not to be conquered; and compelling an enemy to raise the siege, is to the besieged a victory.

The progress of a war is often as ruinous to individuals, as the issue of it is to a nation; and it is not only necessary that our forces be such that we be conquerors in the end, but that by timely exertions we be secure in the interim.

We are not a match for them in the line of advantageous guilt, nor they for us on the principles which we bravely set out with.

A nation hardened in the practice of iniquity knows better how to profit by it, than a young country newly corrupted.

An association of vice will reduce us more than the sword.

If we suffer them much longer to remain among us, we shall become as bad as themselves.

It is now full time to put an end to a war of aggravations, which, on one side, has no possible object, and on the other has every inducement which honor, interest, safety and happiness can inspire.

It is a mode of war that carries with it a confession of weakness, and goes on the principle of distress rather than conquest.

America ever is what she thinks herself to be.