I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.

Its objects are CONTRACTS with foreign nations which have the force of law, but derive it from the obligations of good faith.

[S]ound policy condemns the practice of accumulating debts.

It will be well to advert to the proportion between the objects that will require a federal provision in respect to revenue; and those which will require a state provision. We shall discover that the former are altogether unlimited; and that the latter are circumscribed within very moderate bounds.

The inhabitants of territories, often the theatre of war, are unavoidably subject to frequent infringements on their rights, which serve to weaken their sense of those rights; and by degrees, the people are brought to consider the soldiery not only as their protectors but as their superiors.

If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy.

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