You will agree with me in opinion that there is nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.

I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.

Differences in political opinion are as unavoidable as to a certain point they may perhaps be necessary.

Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust.

To please everybody is impossible were I to undertake it I should probably please nobody.

Those who have committed no faults want no pardon. We are only defending what we deem our indisputable rights.

But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.