The preservation of the unalienable rights of all his fellow-creatures was one of the chief characteristics of that excellent citizen.

Let every member in that house imitate him in the purity of their conduct and in the universal rectitude of their measures, and they would pay the same tender regard to the rights of other countries as to those of their own; and, for his part, he should never believe those persons to be sincere, who were loud in their professions of love of liberty, if he saw that love confined to the narrow circle of one community, which ought to be extended to the natural rights of every inhabitant of the globe.
But we should be better able to bring ourselves up to this standard of rectitude, if we were to put ourselves into the situation of those, whom we oppressed.

This was the rule of our religion.

What should we think of those, who should say, that it was their interest to injure us?
But he hoped we should not deceive ourselves so grossly as to imagine, that it was our real interest to oppress any one.

The advantages to be obtained by tyranny were imaginary, and deceitful to the tyrant; and the evils they caused to the oppressed were grievous, and often insupportable.
Before he sat down, he would apologize, if he had expressed himself too warmly on this subject.