The state governments have a full superintendence and control over the immense mass of local interests of their respective states, which connect themselves with the feelings, the affections, the municipal institutions, and the internal arrangements of the whole population. They possess, too, the immediate administration of justice in all cases, civil and criminal, which concern the property, personal rights, and peaceful pursuits of their own citizens.

I will not say with Lord Hale, that "The Law will admit of no rival" . . . but I will say that it is a jealous mistress, and requires a long and constant courtship. It is not to be won by trifling favors, but by lavish homage.

The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic.

I know of no power, indeed, of which a free people ought to be more jealous, than of that of levying taxes and duties.

There is not a truth to be gathered from history more certain, or more momentous, than this: that civil liberty cannot long be separated from religious liberty without danger, and ultimately without destruction to both. Wherever religious liberty exists, it will, first or last, bring in and establish political liberty.

If the Constitution is a compact, then the States have a right to secede.

The First Amendment was not intended to withdraw the Christian religion as a whole from the protection of Congress.