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.

A government, forever changing and changeable, is, indeed, in a state bordering upon anarchy and confusion.

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

It is important also to consider, that the surest means of avoiding war is to be prepared for it in peace.

This provision (the 4th Amendment) speaks for itself. Its plain object is to secure the perfect enjoyment of that great right of the common law, that a man's house shall be his own castle, privileged against all civil and military intrusion.

One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offence to keep arms, and by substituting a regular army in the stead of a resort to the militia. The friends of a free government cannot be too watchful, to overcome the dangerous tendency of the public mind to sacrifice, for the sake of mere private convenience, this powerful check upon the designs of ambitious men.

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