[W]here is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths...?
• George Washington •

"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."
–James Madison

"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?"
--JamesMadison

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever."
--Thomas Jefferson

"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
–James Madison

"[H]onesty will be found on every experiment, to be the best and only true policy; let us then as a Nation be just."
--George Washington

"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. "
–Abraham Lincoln

"Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of
religious liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man's nature,
and the noble rank he holds among the works of God. ... Let it
be known that British liberties are not the grants of princes
and parliaments." --John Adams

"The most important consequence of marriage is, that the husband
and the wife become in law only one person. ... Upon this
principle of union, almost all the other legal consequences of
marriage depend. This principle, sublime and refined, deserves
to be viewed and examined on every side." --James Wilson

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this
ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to
the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the
boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress,
is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer
susceptible of any definition." --Thomas Jefferson

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and
intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are
banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest,
and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people,
in order to betray them." --Joseph Story

"If it be asked, 'What is the most sacred duty and the greatest
source of our security in a Republic?' The answer would be,
'An invoilable respect for the Constitution and Laws -- the
first growing out of the last.' ... A sacred respect for the
constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy
of a free government."
--Alexander Hamilton