The American Name

Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.

Dangers of the Spirit of Party

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension … is itself a frightful despotism.

It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble the Public administration … kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments occasional riot and insurrection.

Education

Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

Foreign Relations

Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.

The Nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.

Hand of Providence

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts in the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step, by which they have been advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.

Honesty

I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs that honesty is always the best policy.

Liberty Has a Price

You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together. The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

Public Credit

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit … avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt … not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.

Respect for Authority; Obedience to Laws

This government, the offspring of our own choice … has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true Liberty.

The very idea of the power and the right of the People to establish government presupposes the duty of every Individual to obey the established Government.

Separation of Powers

Liberty itself will find in such a Government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian.

The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories … has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern.

Union

The Unity of Government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence … of that very Liberty which you so highly prize.

Your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

Virtue and Morality

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness.

‘Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.