There is every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are capable.

Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.

The great increase of our population throughout the Union will alone produce an important effect, and in no quarter will it be so sensibly felt as in those in contemplation.

To impose taxes when the public exigencies require them is an obligation of the most sacred character, especially with a free people.

[In a republic,] it is not the people themselves who make the decisions, but the people they themselves choose to stand in their places.

The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil.

Of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press; of the trial by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into tyranny.