Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

For the same reason that the members of the State legislatures will be unlikely to attach themselves sufficiently to national objects, the members of the federal legislature will be likely to attach themselves too much to local objects.

The primary function of government is to protect the minority of the opulent from the majority of the poor.

With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.

A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.

In proportion to the value of this revolution; in proportion to the importance of instruments, every word of which decides a question between power and liberty; in proportion to the solemnity of acts, proclaiming the will authenticated by the seal of the people, the only earthly source of authority, ought to be the vigilance with which they are guarded by every citizen in private life, and the circumspection with which they are executed by every citizen in public trust.

The better proof of reverence for that holy name would be not to profane it by making it a topic of legislative discussion.