From Martin Kelly,
Your Guide to American History.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

"But I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free."

"The plea of necessity, that eternal argument of all conspirators."

"There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power."

"The broad foundation upon which our Constitution rests being the people—a breath of theirs having made, as a breath can unmake, change, or modify it—it can be assigned to none of the great divisions of government but to that of democracy."

"We admit of no government by divine right....The only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed."

"I proceed to state in as summary a manner as I can my opinion of the sources of the evils which have been so extensively complained of.... Some of the former are unquestionably to be found in the defects of the Constitution; others, in my judgment, are attributable to a misconstruction of some of its provisions. Of the former is the eligibility of the same individual to a second term of the Presidency."

"A decent and manly examination of the acts of government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged."

"Our citizens must be content with the exercise of the powers with which the Constitution clothes them."