Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice....
Have republics in practice been less addicted to war than monarchies? Are not the former administered by men as well as the latter?
It has been observed...that a pure democracy, if it were practicable, would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position in politics is more false than this.
Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped....
No legislative act...contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master....
Peace or war will not always be left to our option.... However moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition, of others.
The ancient democracies, in which the people themselves deliberated, never possessed one feature of good government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.
The compacts which are to embrace thirteen distinct States in a common bond of amity and union, must as necessarily be a compromise of as many dissimilar interests and inclinations. How can perfection spring from such materials?
The establishment of a Constitution, in time of profound peace, by the voluntary consent of a whole people, is a prodigy, to the completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety.
The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.
The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.