How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)
Quote #1
I couldn't have felt really and satisfactorily fine and proud and set-up over any title except one that should come from the nation itself, the only legitimate source. (8.7)
Hank holds to a very American way of thinking: that only a democratic vote matters, and that the will of the people is more important than what the people in charge have to say.
Quote #2
The very first official thing I did, in my administration—and it was on the very first day of it, too—was to start a patent office; for I knew that a country without a patent office and good patent laws was just a crab, and couldn't travel any way but sideways or backways. (9.1)
Another American idea here: register your inventions so you can make money from them. Everything else comes second. Twain seems to be commenting on our eagerness to invent new things… then exploit those things for all the money we can grab.
Quote #3
I was from Connecticut, whose Constitution declares "that all political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their benefit; and that they have at all times an undeniable and indefeasible right to alter their form of government in such a manner as they may think expedient." (13.9)
Hank's moral superiority is self-evident to him… and comes straight from the land where he was born. It's interesting that he mentions the state Constitution instead of the U.S. Constitution. Could that be one of the reasons Twain made his hero from Connecticut—because the wording of the Constitution worked for him? (Otherwise, we might all be reading A New Hampshire Yankee in King Arthur's Court.)