"A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and be governed by, the civil power."
The Virginia Declaration of Rights June 12, 1776

"I have long considered the watchfulness of the people over the conduct of their rulers the strongest guard against the encroachments of power; and I hope the people of this country will always be thus watchful."
John Adams, February 1st, 1788

"The several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States and of amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government for special purposes, – delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force."
Thomas Jefferson, draft of the Kentucky Resolution, 1798


"[A]rts and sciences … have flourished in proportion as industry has been free and property safe.”
John Taylor of Caroline, 1820

“An adoration of military fame, specious projects and eminent individuals, has in all ages brought on mankind a multitude of evils; and a sound freedom of property is the only mode that I know of, able to destroy the worship of these idols, by removing beyond their reach the sacrifices upon which themselves, and their proselytes, subsist.”
John Taylor of Caroline, 1820

“Exclusive privileges will make more proselytes to despotism, than the severest punishments.”
John Taylor of Caroline, 1820

“[A]n artificial sovereignty for taking away that which belongs to others, cannot be better, than a natural sovereignty, for keeping that which belongs to ourselves.”
John Taylor of Caroline, 1820

“The grant of a charter implies a retention of every power not granted, just as a deed of gift or sale for a portion of an estate leaves unimpaired the title of the owner to the portion he does not convey away. A conveyance of part does not entitle the grantee to take more, or the whole of the residue if he pleases.”
John Taylor of Caroline, 1820

“Between balanced orders there is no supremacy and no subordination. The supremacy they possess is over the nation, and the subordination they inflict, is not upon each other, but upon the nation, and upon the inferior officers of government. Are our political departments, balanced orders? If so, one department cannot be subordinate to another, according to the English system. Indeed a supremacy of one check or balance, over that check or balance intended as a controul or abridgment of this one's power, would obviously defeat the check or balance designed to be substantial.”
John Taylor of Caroline, 1820


"The Constitution has admitted the jurisdiction of the United States within the limits of the several States only so far as the delegated powers authorize; beyond that they [the federal government] are intruders, and may rightfully be expelled."
John C. Calhoun

"I do not belong to the school which holds that aggression is to be met by concession. Mine is the opposite creed, which teaches that encroachments must be met at the beginning, and that those who act on the opposite principle are prepared to become slaves.”
John C. Calhoun, February 6th, 1837

"Wrongs were most sensibly felt and easily resisted at the extreme limit of right."
John C. Calhoun


"Do not all constitutions imply that men will be faithless in their duty to others? What are they made for, but to restrain the strong, because the strong will be unscrupulous? Undoubtedly, it is wrong for men to aggress upon their fellow men; but this is the nature - the fallen nature of man; and constitutions are made to counteract this inevitable tendency of our nature; and by clearly defined and distinct limitations, to give the weak, the moral power, in foro conscientiae, of protecting themselves. No constitution can enforce itself. Its grants of power will always be enforced by the majority; but its limitations on power, must be enforced by the minority, for whose benefit they were created. But how can a minority enforce a constitution? In but one way - by reason, backed by a stern spirit of resistance. Since the foundation of free governments, no constitution has been ever preserved by mere faith of those who had power over it; it has been preserved by the resistance of those who are mainly interested in its limitations. Men - not inanimate parchments - living men, not dead abstractions - have enforced free governments."
Robert Barnwell Rhett, Charleston SC, 1860

"The real issue involved in the relations between the North and the South of the American States, is the great principle of self-government. Shall a dominant party of the North rule the South, or shall the people of the South rule themselves. This is the great matter in controversy. "
Robert Barnwell Rhett, Charleston SC, 1860