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

In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects.

If there are such things as political axioms, the propriety of the judicial power of a government being co-extensive with its legislative, may be ranked among the number.

It is by far the safer course to lay [considerations of the future] altogether aside; and to confine our attention wholly to the nature and extent of the powers as they are delineated in the constitution. Everything beyond this, must be left to the prudence and firmness of the people; who, as they will hold the scales in their own hands, it is to be hoped, will always take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium between the General and State governments.

The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.

The obscurity is much oftener in the passions and prejudices of the reasoner than in the subject.

Let experience, the least fallible guide of human opinion, be appealed to for an answer to these inquiries.