As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.

War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.

The powers of the federal government ... result from the compact to which the states are parties, [and are] limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact.

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.

Government destitute of energy, will ever produce anarchy.

The smaller the number and the more permanent and conspicuous the station of men in power, the stronger must be the interest which they will individually feel in whatever concerns the government.