Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.

Has it not. . . invariably been found that momentary passions, and immediate interests, have a more active and imperious control over human conduct than general or remote considerations of policy, utility and justice?

What bitter anguish would not the people of Athens have often escaped if their government had contained so provident a safeguard against tyranny of their own passions? Popular liberty might then have escaped the indelible reproach of decreeing to the same citizens the hemlock on one day and statutes the next.

Though a wide ocean separates the United States from Europe, yet there are various considerations that warn us against an excess of confidence or security.

The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which the care of it is committed.

Nothing is more natural to men in office, than to look with peculiar deference towards that authority to which they owe their official existence.

[W]e must extend the authority of the Union to the persons of the citizens - the only proper objects of government.