"The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our read more

"The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men." -Samuel Adams

The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the read more

We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our liberty and of our property under the Constitution.

A Constitution should be short and obscure

A Constitution should be short and obscure

The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon

The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am read more

I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people read more

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

From Watergate we learned what generations before us have known; our Constitution works. And during Watergate years it was interpreted read more

From Watergate we learned what generations before us have known; our Constitution works. And during Watergate years it was interpreted again so as to reaffirm that no one - absolutely no one - is above the law.