"Men are naturally ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious."

"Safety and happiness are the objects at which all political institutions aim, and to which all ought to be sacrificed."

"I have always been in favor of a general government, and I am in favor of it now."

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground."

"War, like other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perseverance, by time, and by practice."