john jay

“ No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent. ”

“ Almost all nations have peace or war at the will and pleasure of rulers whom they do not elect, and who are not always wise or virtuous. ”

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

“ As a nation, we have made peace and war: as a nation, we have vanquished our common enemies: as a nation, we have formed alliances, and made treaties, and entered into various compacts and conventions with foreign States. ”

“ Washington's just and serene ascendancy was the lambent flame in which these beneficent powers were fused, and nothing less than that ascendancy could have ridden the whirlwind and directed the storm that burst around him. ”

“ This country and these people seem to have been made for each other, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties. ”

“ Distrust naturally creates distrust, and by nothing is goodwill and kind conduct more speedily changed. ”

“ Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. ”

“ We must go home to be happy, and our home is not in this world. Here we have nothing to do but our duty. ”

“ Those who own the country ought to govern it. ”