All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former.

Conscience is the most sacred of all property.

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

The important distinction so well understood in America between a constitution established by the people, and unalterable by the government; and a law established by the government, and alterable by the government, seems to have been little understood and less observed in any other country. Wherever the supreme power of legislation has resided, has been supposed to reside also, a full power to change the form of government.

Who are to be the objects of popular choice? Every citizen whose merit may recommend him to the esteem and confidence of his country.

[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue; or in any manner affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few not for the many.