If it be said that the legislative body are themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers, and that the construction they put upon them is conclusive upon the other departments, it may be answered, that this cannot be the natural presumption, where it is not be collected from any particular provisions in the Constitution.

The honor of a nation is its life. Deliberately to abandon it is to commit an act of political suicide.

It will follow that that government ought to be clothed with all powers requisite to complete execution of its trust.

If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government.

Give me the steady, uniform, unshaken security of constitutional freedom. Give me the right to be tried by a jury of my own neighbors, and to be taxed by my own representatives only. What will become of the law and courts of justice without this? The shadow may remain, but the substance will be gone. I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.

The powers contained in a constitution...ought to be construed liberally in advancement of the public good.

[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties.