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

And as the vicissitudes of Nations beget a perpetual tendency to the accumulation of debt, there ought to be in every government a perpetual, anxious, and unceasing effort to reduce that, which at any times exists, as fast as shall be practicable consistently with integrity and good faith.

[In the event of war, Americans would] resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe they, at length, become willing to run the risk of being less free.

This process of election affords a moral certainty that the office of President will seldom fall to the lot of any many who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.

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

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

The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense.