Constitutional Spirit Quotes

This system of military conscription … is not only inconsistent with the provisions and spirit of the Constitution, but also with all the principles of civil liberty.

The idea that this country may acquire territories anywhere upon the earth, by conquest or treaty, and hold them as mere colonies or provinces, the people inhabiting them to enjoy only such rights as Congress accords them, is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius as well as with the words of the Constitution

Any political movement directed against any body of our fellow-citizens because of their religious creed is a grave offense against American principles and American institutions. It is a wicked thing either to support or oppose a man because of the creed he possesses. . . . Such a movement directly contravenes the spirit of the Constitution itself.

I firmly believe that the Constitution is the most powerful challenge to illiberal tendencies. If the Constitution is followed in letter and spirit and if the laws are made in the spirit in which Constitution was made, liberties can indeed be protected.

Judiciary must be encouraged to find ways and means to regulate its own affairs - consistent with the spirit of the Constitution.

The constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those ... who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy. ... I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.

BJP has never done politics on religion, and no one should do it. It is against the spirit of our Constitution.

The Constitution of the United States is not a mere lawyers' document. It is a vehicle of life, and its spirit is always the spirit of the age. Its prescriptions are clear and we know what they arebut life is always your last and most authoritative critic.

Constitution is not a mere lawyers document, it is a vehicle of Life, and its spirit is always the spirit of Age.

The principle of the Constitution is that of a separation of legislative, Executive and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, it is clearly the spirit of the Constitution, and it ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend of free government.

For it is always to be remembered that it is the spirit with which a constitution is in practice administered, that is the great point of consequence, far more than the letter of the law

That which most contributes to the permanence of constitutions is the adaptation of education to the form of government, and yet in our own day this principle is universally neglected. The best laws, though sanctioned by every citizen of the state, will be of no avail unless the young are trained by habit and education in the spirit of the constitution.

It has been and is said of myself and the people over whom I have the honor to preside, that they frequently indulge in strictures upon the acts of men who are intrusted with governmental affairs, and the Government itself sometimes does not wholly escape. Now, sir, I will simply state what I know to be true, that no people exists who are more friendly to the Government of the United States than the people of this Territory. The Constitution they revere, the laws they seek to honor. But the non-execution of those laws in times past, for our protection, and the abuse of power in the hands of those intrusted therewith, even in the hands of those whom we have supported for office, even betraying us in the hour of our greatest peril and extremity, but withholding the due execution of laws designed for the protection of all the citizens of the United States: it is for this we have cause of complaint, not the want of good and wholesome laws, but the execution of the same, in the true meaning and spirit of the constitution.