A strong sense of the value of union induced the people, at a very early period, to institute a federal government.

It is not to be doubted that a unanimous and punctual observance of treaties and public engagements are the best fruits of good faith and honorable integrity.

Among the many objects to which a wise and free people find it necessary to direct their attention, that of providing for their safety seems to be the first.

To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people, each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection.

The people are the sovereign of this country, and consequently the founders of such a society as that of the United States.

Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights, in order to vest it with requisite powers.

Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people—a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government.

The vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty.

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.

True friendship is a plant of slow growth.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.

United we stand, divided we fall.

It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.

It is better to be alone than in bad company.

True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity, before it is entitled to the appellation.

Permit me Sir to add, that Policy alone in our Present Circumstances, seems to demand that every Satisfaction which can reasonably be requested, should be given to those Veteran Troops who, through almost every Distress, have been so long and so faithfully serving the States . . .

In modern wars, the longest purse must chiefly determine the event.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.