The [president] has no particle of spiritual jurisdiction. . . .

Divide et impera must be the motto of every nation that either hates or fears us.

To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.

The states have authority to interpret the Constitution, enforce it, and protect the people from violations of it by the federal government In the first place, there is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution, or which gives them any greater latitude in this respect than may be claimed by the courts of every State.

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

[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties.

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.