To see this country happy…is so much the wish of my soul… nothing on this side of Elysium can be placed in competition with it.

GEORGE WASHINGTON1

Rather than it [The French Revolution] should have failed, I would have seen half the earth desolated. Were there but an Adam and Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it now is.

THOMAS JEFFERSON²

The government we mean to erect is intended to last for ages.

JAMES MADISON³