The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union.

I don't want them to kill no hog . . . . I want a man to go to that chair, on his own two feet.

The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few esteemed characters.

Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.

Our Constitution... has not left the religion of its citizens under the power of its public functionaries, were it possible that any of these should consider a conquest over the conscience of men either attainable or applicable to any desirable purpose.

The more a subject is understood, the more briefly it may be explained.

I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them. ... This has in a great degree been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit.