The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.

Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.

I never use the word "nation" in speaking of the United States. I always use the word "Union" or "Confederacy." We are not a nation but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign States.

The English doctrine that all power is a trust for the public good.

When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.

It is not fit the public trusts should be lodged in the hands of any till they are first proved and found fit for the business they are to be entrusted with.