may be connected like this one great family of fraternal ties.  I indulge a fond, perhaps an enthusiastic idea, that as the world is evidently much less barbarous than it has been, its melioration must still be progressive; that nations are becoming more humanized in their policy, that the subjects of ambition and causes for hostility are daily diminishing, and in fine, that the period is not very remote when the benefits of a liberal and free commerce will pretty generally succeed to the devastations and horrors of war.

“Men’s minds are as varied as their faces, and where the motives to their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime than the appearance of the latter; for both being the work of nature, are equally unavoidable.  Liberality and charity, instead of clamor and misrepresentation, which latter only serve to foment the passions without enlightening the understanding, ought to govern in all disputes about matters of importance.”

From a Letter, 1793

“If it can be esteemed a happiness to live in an age productive of great and interesting events, we of the present age are very highly favored.  The rapidity of national revolutions appears no less astonishing than their magnitude.  In what they will terminate is known only to the Great Ruler of events; and confiding in His wisdom and goodness, we may safely trust the issue to Him, without perplexing ourselves to seek for that which is beyond human ken, only taking care to perform the parts assigned to us in a way that reason and our own conscience approve.”

From a Speech to Both Houses of Congress, 1790

“To administer justice to and receive it from every power with whom they are connected will, I hope, be always found the prominent feature in the administration of this country; and I flatter myself that nothing short of imperious necessity can occasion a breach with any of them.

“Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.  In one of which the measures of government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours, it is proportionably essential.  To the security of a free constitution it contributes in various ways; by convincing those who are entrusted with the public administration that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people, and by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights; to discern and to provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the latter, and uniting a speedy but temperate vigilance against encroachment with an inviolable respect to the laws.”

From a Speech to Both Houses of Congress, 1794

“Let praise be given to every description of citizens.  Let them persevere in their affectionate vigilance over that precious depository of American happiness, the Constitution of the United States.  Let them cherish it, too, for the sake of those, from every clime, daily seeking a dwelling in our land.