Henry Knox quotes

The eyes of all America are upon us, as we play our part in posterity will bless or curse us. (Henry Knox)
Something is wanting, and something must be done, or we shall be involved in all the horror of failure, and civil war without a prospect of its termination. View quote
Henry Knox
The powers of Congress are totally inadequate to preserve the balance between the respective States, and oblige them to do those things which are essential for their own welfare or for the general good. View quote
Henry Knox
That taxes may be the ostensible cause is true, but that they are the true cause is as far remote from truth as light from darkness. View quote
Henry Knox
It is a melancholy reflection that our modes of population have been more destructive to the Indian natives than the conduct of the conquerors of Mexico and Peru. The evidence of this is the utter extirpation of nearly all the Indians in the most populous parts of the Union. A future historian may mark the causes of this destruction of the human race in sable colors. Although the present Government of the United States cannot with propriety be involved in the oppropbrium, yet it seems necessary however, in order to render their attention upon this subject strongly characteristic of their justice, that some powerful attempts should be made to tranquilize the frontiers, particularly those south of the Ohio. View quote
Henry Knox
It is not easy to conceive the difficulties we have had. View quote
Henry Knox
I most earnestly beg you to spare no trouble or necessary expense in getting these. View quote
Henry Knox
We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged. View quote
Henry Knox
We shall cut no small figure through the country with our cannon. View quote
Henry Knox
Trusting that...we shall have a fine fall of snow.... I hope in sixteen or seventeen days to be able to present to your Excellency a noble train of artillery. View quote
Henry Knox
Were an energetic and judicious system to be proposed with your signature it would be a circumstance highly honorable to your fame... and doubly entitle you to the glorious republican epithet, The Father of your Country. (Henry Knox)
Every friend to the liberty of his country is bound to reflect, and step forward to prevent the dreadful consequences which shall result from a government of events. View quote
Henry Knox
We imagined that the mildness of our government and the wishes of the people were so correspondent that we were not as other nations, requiring brutal force to support the laws. View quote
Henry Knox
Having proceeded to this length, for which they are now ripe, we shall have a formidable rebellion against reason, the principle of all government, and against the very name of liberty. View quote
Henry Knox
Men at a distance, who have admired our systems of government unfounded in nature, are apt to accuse the rulers, and say that taxes have been assessed too high and collected too rigidly. View quote
Henry Knox
We have arrived at that point of time in which we are forced to see our own humiliation, as a nation, and that a progression in this line cannot be a productive of happiness, private or public. View quote
Henry Knox
They wish for a general government of unity, as they see that the local legislatures must naturally and necessarily tend to retard the general government. View quote
Henry Knox