In a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen.

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.

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.

Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.

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

To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well

No one imagines that a law professing to tax will be permitted to destroy.