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.

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire.

[Restraints on the press] in all ages, have debauched morals, depressed liberty, shackled religion, supported despotism, and deluged the scaffold with blood.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

The great desideratum in Government is, so to modify the sovereignty as that it may be sufficiently neutral between different parts of the Society to controul one part from invading the rights of another, and at the same time sufficiently controuled itself, from setting up an interest adverse to that of the entire Society.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

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