The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.

War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement

It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.

It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of arms], they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to posses the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will, and direct the national force; and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned, in spite of the legions which surround it.

The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.

The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of Government. But what is Government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

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