There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
Misattributed to John Adams.
But it is in the spirit of President Adams’s thought:
The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own.
John Adams, First Address to Congress (November 23, 1797).