Intent of Parties

"The first and fundamental rule in the interpretation of all instruments is to construe them according to the sense of the terms and the intention of the parties."

Justice Joseph Story

The Palladium

"I mean...to let you know how deeply I am impressed with a sense of the importance of Amendments, that the good people may clearly see the distinction-for there is a distinction, between the federal powers vested in Congress and the sovereign authority belonging to the several states, which is the Palladium of the private and personal rights of the citizens."

Samuel Adams

Original Intent

"The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it."

James Wilson

The Legitimate Constitution

"I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a consistent and stable, more than for a faithful, exercise of it's powers...What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were taken in its modern sense."

James Madison

Questions of Construction

"On every question of Construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollecting the spirit manifested in 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."

Thomas Jefferson to SCOTUS Justice William Johnson