Happy will it be for ourselves, and most honorable for human nature, if we have wisdom and virtue enough to set so glorious an example to mankind!

Good constitutions are formed upon a comparison of the liberty of the individual with the strength of government: If the tone of either be too high, the other will be weakened too much. It is the happiest possible mode of conciliating these objects, to institute one branch peculiarly endowed with sensibility, another with knowledge and firmness. Through the opposition and mutual control of these bodies, the government will reach, in its regular operations, the perfect balance between liberty and power.

It has been observed, [that for the federal government] to coerce the States is one of the maddest projects that was ever devised.

If government is in the hands of the few, they will tyrannize the many; if in the hands of the many, they will tyrannize over the few. It ought to be in the hands of both, and be separated...they will need a mutual check. This check is a monarch.

A nation has a right to manage its own concerns as it thinks fit.

We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

We are attempting, by this Constitution, to abolish factions, and to unite all parties for the general welfare.