Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.