Edmund Burke: “Never did a state, in any case, enrich itself by the confiscations of the citizens.”

I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…

Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.

But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.

I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.