I had rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our powers boundless.

Men as well as rivers grow crooked by following the path of least resistance.

Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, in-as-much as he who knows nothing is nearer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehood and errors.

The purpose of establishing different houses of legislation is to introduce the influence of different interests or different principles.

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.