“Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers.”

“Whether there ought to be a federal government intrusted with the care of the common defense, is a question in the first instance, open for discussion; but the moment it is decided in the affirmative, it will follow, that that government ought to be clothed with all the powers requisite to complete execution of its trust.”

“…there must be interwoven, in the frame of the government, a general power of taxation, in one shape or another.”

“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.”

“[The veto] not only serves as a shield to the executive, but it furnishes an additional security against the enaction of improper laws.”

“Bi-ennial elections for representatives are a departure from the safe democratical principles of annual ones.”

“The office of President . . . is in reality to be a king as much a King as the King of Great Britain, and a King too of the worst kind;—an elective King.”

“Sixty-five members cannot possibly know the situation and circumstances of all the inhabitants of this immense continent.”

“It must be by this time evident to all men…that (the Articles of Confederation) is a system so radically vicious and unsound as to admit….an entire change.”

“Our country is too large to have all affairs directed by a single government.”

“The powers contained in the constitution….ought to be construed liberally in advancement of the public good.”

“I am not among those who fear the people. They, not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.”

"I had rather be a free citizen of the small republic of Massachusetts, than an oppressed subject of the great American empire."

“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”

“… the power vested in congress of sending troops for suppressing insurrections will always enable them to stifle the first struggles of freedom."

…all rights not expressly and unequivocally reserved to the people are impliedly and incidentally relinquished to rulers, as necessarily inseparable from the delegated powers

…one general government…would not be so competent to attend to various local concerns and wants

Your Constitution (of Pennsylvania)…is yet in existence, as yet you have the right to freedom of speech, and of publishing your sentiments. How long those rights will appertain to you, you yourselves are called upon to say whether your houses shall continue to be castles, whether you papers, your persons and your property, are to be held sacred and free from general warrants, you are now to determine.

It is impossible for one code of laws to suit Georgia and Massachusetts. They must, therefore, legislate for themselves

…Permit one of yourselves to put you in mind of certain liberties and privileges secured to you by the constitution of this common wealth, and to beg you serious attention to his uninterested opinion upon the plan of federal government submitted to your consideration, before you surrender these great and valuable privileges up forever.