On the diffusion of education among the people rest the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions.

The inherent right in the people to reform their government, I do not deny; and they have another right, and that is to resist unconstitutional laws without overturning the government.

..if the Northern states refuse, willfully and deliberately, to carry into effect that part of the Constitution which respects the restoration of fugitive slaves, and Congress provide no remedy, the South would no longer be bound to observe the compact. A bargain can not be broken on one side, and still bind the other side.

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

Human beings will generally exercise power when they can get it, and they will exercise it most undoubtedly in popular governments under pretense of public safety.

Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.

There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters