Washington made but very few epigrammatic speeches. Here is one: “To be prepared for war is the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
Did you ever hear of old John Dickinson? Well, he wrote of Americans in 1768: “By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.”
Patrick Henry, as every school-boy knows, gave us, “Give me liberty, or give me death,” and “If this be treason, make the most of it.”
Thomas Paine had many quotable epigrammatic sentences: “Rose like a rocket; fell like a stick;” “Times that try men’s souls;” “One step from the sublime to the ridiculous,” etc., etc.
Jefferson’s writings are so besprinkled that it is difficult to select. In despair we jump at “Few die and none resign,” certainly as applicable to office-holders now as in Jefferson’s time.
Henry Lee gave Washington his immortal title, “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney declared in favor of “Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute.”
“Peaceably if we can; forcibly if we must,” is from Josiah Quincy, 1841.
John Adams did not say, “Live or die, survive or perish, I am for the constitution,” but Daniel Webster said it for him.
The revolutionary age alone would give us our article, had we time to gather pearls. Coming down, we pass greater, but not more famous men.