Is the appointment of Chaplains to the two Houses of Congress consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom? In strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative. The Constitution of the U. S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion. The law appointing Chaplains establishes a religious worship for the national representatives, to be performed by Ministers of religion, elected by a majority of them, and these are to be paid out of the national taxes. Does this not involve the principle of a national establishment ... ?

From the the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results.

I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other.

In order to judge of the form to be given to this institution the Senate, it will be proper to take a view of the ends to be served by it. These were,first, to protect the people against their rulers, secondly, to protect the people against the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led.

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

Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power, and to withhold from them information without which power is abused.

The citizens of the United States have peculiar motives to support the energy of their constitutional charters.