[The public has] the habit now of invalidating opinions emanating from me by reference to my age and infirmities.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

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

Man is known to be a selfish, as well as a social being.

There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermingle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation.

Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.

It is a melancholy reflection that liberty should be equally exposed to danger whether the government have too much power or too little power and that the line which divides these extremes should be so inaccurately defined by experience.