On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit of the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.
On every question of ...
Quotes from the same author
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.