The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.
Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.
Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.
Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
Conscience is the most sacred of all property.
They can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society.
In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.
The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed.
Whilst the last members were signing it Doctr. Franklin looking towards the Presidents chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that Painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun.
It would have marked a want of foresight in the convention, which our own experience would have rendered inexcusable.
The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.
Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
A people armed and free, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition and is a bulwark for the nation against foreign invasion and domestic oppression.
A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.