"A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue."-James Monroe
"If America wants concessions, she must fight for them. We must purchase our power with our blood." -James Monroe
If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy.
In this great nation there is but one order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly happy improvement of the representative principle, is transferred from them, without impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty, to bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by themselves, in the full extent necessary for the purposes of free, enlightened, and efficient government.
It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and a usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin.
Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was a success so complete.
Our country may be likened to a new house. We lack many things, but we possess the most precious of all -- liberty!
Preparation for war is a constant stimulus to suspicion and ill will.
The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil.
