The object of a Constitution is to restrain the Government, as that of laws is to restrain individuals.
John C. CalhounGovernment has no right to control individual liberty beyond what is necessary to the safety and well-being of society. Such is the boundary which separates the power of the government and the liberty of the citizen or subject in the political state.
John C. CalhounThe surrender of life is nothing to sinking down into acknowledgment of inferiority.
John C. CalhounThe interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism.
John C. Calhoun