But as the plan of the convention aims only at a partial union or consolidation, the State governments would clearly retain all the rights of sovereignty which they before had, and which were not, by that act, EXCLUSIVELY delegated to the United States.

[T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes - rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments.

Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed?

To presume a want of motives for such contests . . . would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.

War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverance, by time, and by practice.

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

While the constitution continues to be read, and its principles known, the states, must, by every rational man, be considered as essential component parts of the union; and therefore the idea of sacrificing the former to the latter is totally inadmissible.