I go by the great republican principle, that the people will have the virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom [to the offices of government].

[I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed.

If men were angels, there would be no need of government.

The passions, therefore, not the reason, of the public would sit in judgment. But it is the reason, alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government. The passions ought to be controlled and regulated by the government.

The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.

But the mild voice of reason, pleading the cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too often drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate gain.