I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking of the Union into two or more parts.

A generation may bind itself as long as its majority continues in life; when that has disappeared, another majority is in place, holds all the rights and powers their predecessors once held, and may change their laws and institutions to suit themselves. Nothing then is unchangeable but the inherent and inalienable rights of man.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit of the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.

Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error.

Let the eye of vigilance never be closed.

Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried.