[W]e must extend the authority of the Union to the persons of the citizens - the only proper objects of government.

Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.

I propose . . . . The conformity of the proposed Constitution to the true principles of republican government.

A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.

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

The variety of more minute interests, which will necessarily fall under the superintendence of the local administrations . . . cannot be particularized without involving a detail too tedious and uninteresting to compensate for the instruction it might afford.

The militia is a voluntary force not associated or under the control of the States except when called out; [ when called into actual service] a permanent or long standing force would be entirely different in make-up and call.