The law does not expect a man to be prepared to defend every act of his life which may be suddenly and without notice alleged against him.

The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.

What are the maxims of Democracy? A strict observance of justice and public faith, and a steady adherence to virtue.

The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.

The particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.

No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States and compounding the American people into one common mass.

It is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society; the application of those rules to individuals in society would seem to be the duty of other departments.