The propriety of a law, in a constitutional light, must always be determined by the nature of the powers upon which it is founded.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.

The experience of past ages may inform us, that when the circumstances of a people render them distressed, their rulers generally recur to severe, cruel, and oppressive measures. Instead of endeavoring to establish their authority in the affection of their subjects, they think they have no security but in their fear.

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.

If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.

Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.

In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources.