[V]igor of government is essential to the security of liberty.

Our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep.

To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection.

People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work.

Little more can reasonably be aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed.

Every nation ought to have a right to provide for its own happiness.

Laws are a dead letter without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation.