The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered... deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

My movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government * * * whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.

A nation without a national government is, in my view, an awful spectacle.

The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts.

The judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution.

Those who are to be the judges of the law ought to be independent, and under the influence of none but heaven.

The wisdom of a few has often outweighed the clamor of many.

It is essential to the security of liberty that the government in general should have a common interest with the people.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.

In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society.

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.

A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects committed to its care.

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.