The Smaller The Number And The More

American Citizens Are Instrumental In Carrying On A Traffic In Enslaved Africans, Equally In Violation Of The Laws Of Humanity And In Defiance Of Those Of Their Own Country. The Same Just And Benevolent Motives Which Produced Interdiction In Force Against This Criminal Conduct Will Doubtless Be Felt By Congress In Devising Further Means Of Suppressing The Evil.

The American People Are Too Well Schooled In The Duty And Practice Of Submitting To The Will Of The Majority To Permit Any Serious Uneasiness On That Account

In Time Of Actual War, Great Discretionary Powers Are Constantly Given To The Executive Magistrate. Constant Apprehension Of War, Has The Same Tendency To Render The Head Too Large For The Body. A Standing Military Force, With An Overgrown Executive Will Not Long Be Safe Companions To Liberty.

[t]he Powers Granted By The Proposed Constitution Are The Gift Of The People, And May Be Resumed By Them When Perverted To Their Oppression, And Every Power Not Granted Thereby Remains With The People.

How Could A Readiness For War In Time Of Peace Be Safely Prohibited, Unless We Could Prohibit, In Like Manner, The Preparations And Establishments Of Every Hostile Nation? The Means Of Security Can Only Be Regulated By The Means And The Danger Of Attack. They Will, In Fact, Be Ever Determined By These Rules, And By No Others . . . . If One Nation Maintains Constantly A Disciplined Army, Ready For Service Of Ambition Or Revenge, It Obliges The Most Pacific Nations Who May Be Within The Reach Of Its Enterprises To Take Corresponding Precautions.