That the people have an original right to establish, for their future government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis, on which the whole American fabric has been erected.... The principles, therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental. And as the authority, from which they proceed, is supreme ... they are designed to be permanent.... The powers of the legislature are defined, and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written.

The French Revolution will be found to have had great influence on the strength of parties, and on the subsequent political transactions of the United States.

I fear we may live to see another revolution.

Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.

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.

When a law is in its nature a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest those rights.

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.