We Must Support Our Rights Or Lose

I Have Great Satisfaction In Stating That Our Relations With France, Russia, And Other Powers Continue On The Most Friendly Basis.

The Citizens Of The United States Cherish Sentiments The Most Friendly In Favor Of Liberty And Happiness...beyond The Atlantic. In The Wars Of The European Powers In Matters Relating To Themselves We Have Never Taken Any Part, Nor Does It Comport With Our Policy To Do So. It Is Only When Our Rights Are Invaded Or Seriously Menaced That We Resent Injuries.

While We Assert For Ourselves A Freedom To Embrace, To Profess, And To Observe, The Religion Which We Believe To Be Of Divine Origin, We Cannot Deny An Equal Freedom To Them Whose Minds Have Not Yielded To The Evidence Which Has Convinced Us.

[in A Republic,] It Is Not The People Themselves Who Make The Decisions, But The People They Themselves Choose To Stand In Their Places.

How Prone All Human Institutions Have Been To Decay; How Subject The Best-formed And Most Wisely Organized Governments Have Been To Lose Their Check And Totally Dissolve; How Difficult It Has Been For Mankind, In All Ages And Countries, To Preserve Their Dearest Rights And Best Privileges, Impelled As It Were By An Irresistible Fate Of Despotism.