...that standing army can never be formidable (threatening) to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in the use of arms.

Good and wise men, in all ages, have embraced a very dissimilar theory. They have supposed that the deity, from the relations we stand in to himself and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever. This is what is called the law of nature....Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind.

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

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

The origin of all civil government, justly established, must be a voluntary compact, between the rulers and the ruled; and must be liable to such limitations, as are necessary for the security of the absolute rights of the latter; for what original title can any man or set of men have, to govern others, except their own consent?

That there may happen cases in which the national government may be necessitated to resort to force, cannot be denied.

Measures which serve to abridge the free competition of foreign Articles, have a tendency to occasion an enhancement of prices.