Government Has Within It A Tendency To

Of All Earthly Blessings, I Place Liberty In The First Rank, And Of Course, Consider The Obligation To Defend And Preserve It, As The Most Sacred Of All Our Civil And Social Duties... It Is Not In The Power Of Any Single, Or Few Individuals To Preserve Liberty. It Can Only Be Effected By The People Themselves; By Their Intelligence, Virtue, Courage, And Patriotism.

To Maintain The Ascendancy Of The Constitution Over The Lawmaking Majority Is The Great And Essential Point On Which The Success Of The [american] System Must Depend; Unless That Ascendancy Can Be Preserved, The Necessary Consequence Must Be That The Laws Will Supersede The Constitution; And, Finally, The Will Of The Executive, By Influence Of Its Patronage, Will Supersede The Laws . . .

There Never Has Yet Existed A Wealthy And Civilized Society In Which One Portion Of The Community Did Not, In Point Of Fact, Live On The Labor Of The Other.

Protection And Patriotism Are Reciprocal.

If We Do Not Defend Ourselves None Will Defend Us; If We Yield We Will Be More And More Pressed As We Recede; And If We Submit We Will Be Trampled Under Foot. I Hold Concession Or Compromise To Be Fatal. If We Concede An Inch, Concession Would Follow Compromise, Until Our Ranks Would Be So Broken That Effectual Resistance Would Be Impossible.