A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm . . . But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal government to such an extremity.

The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property.

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security.

Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them.