Founders’ Quotes

I acknowledge, in the ordinary course of government, that the exposition of the laws and Constitution devolves upon the judicial. But I beg to know upon what principle it can be contended that any one department draws from the Constitution greater powers than another in marking out the limits of the powers of the several departments.

A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking.

And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.

A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife.

However weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties.

Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government.

It is on great occasions only, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the real voice of the people can be known.

The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms and false reasonings is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole human race, and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice.

If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it?

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

A fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to abuse it, when acquired.

Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure.

The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.

[The president] is the dignified, but accountable magistrate of a free and great people. The tenure of his office, it is true, is not hereditary; nor is it for life: but still it is a tenure of the noblest kind: by being the man of the people, he is invested; by continuing to be the man of the people, his investiture will be voluntarily, and cheerfully, and honourably renewed.

The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories.

The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.