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“Proper republics, by contrast, depended on widespread civic virtue, citizen participation, and patriotism. In the best of such regimes, common folk informed themselves about politics, especially by reading newspapers; deliberated in good faith with their fellow citizens; voted in free and fair elections, with the aim of choosing the most able and virtuous; willingly obeyed democratically enacted laws, including tax laws; participated in juries and militias when summoned; and staffed elective and appointed positions of public service when called to do so by their fellow citizens.”
― Akhil Reed Amar, The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840

“A second existential threat—slavery—was internal, subtler, and insidiously increasing. Human bondage, if not placed on a path of ultimate extinction, threatened to destroy the soul of the American republic. A closely related threat was regional polarization. As time passed, slavery shrank in the North and metastasized in the South. This divergence made it harder for the two regions to converse with each other, as the South increasingly came under the grip of pro-slavery extremists who disdained discourse and democracy and who would ultimately take up arms against both the Constitution and the American union that it embodied.”
― Akhil Reed Amar, The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840

“Morgan, The Meaning of Independence, at 60: “He placed a higher value on collecting books and drinking good wine than he did on freeing his slaves.”
― Akhil Reed Amar, The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840

“Marshall here was a smooth and understated southern gentleman. Here is what he meant by “embarrassments”: Thanks to the Articles of Confederation’s inadequate authorization of Congressional power, America almost lost its War of Independence, and countless heroes died needlessly at Valley Forge and elsewhere. I would know; unlike my kinsman Jefferson, I was there. And so was Washington and so was Hamilton and so were many others who somehow survived and who later pointedly omitted the word “expressly” from the original Constitution and successfully opposed all efforts to insert it into the Bill of Rights.”
― Akhil Reed Amar, The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840