"The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone."

"Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions."

"The States will retain, under the proposed Constitution, a very extensive portion of active sovereignty..."

"A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species."

"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."

"Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals.... The invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended..."

"How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?"

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents...."

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions."

"Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit."

"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty."

"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."

"The eyes of the world being thus on our Country, it is put the more on its good behavior, and under the greater obligation also, to do justice to the Tree of Liberty by an exhibition of the fine fruits we gather from it."

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."