How soon we forget history...Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country. - March 15, 1783
My brave fellows, let no sensation of satisfaction for the triumphs you have gained induce you to insult your fallen enemy. Let no shouting, no clamorous huzzaing increase their mortification. It is sufficient for us that we witness their humiliation. Posterity will huzza for us.
What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious.
The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism . . .
with humanity, and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren.
Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world