Edmund Burke: “Strange grounds to build confidence upon!--the rotten ground of corruption, accompanied with the infamy of its avowal!”

Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.

Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.

Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.

They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.