Patrick Henry
on George Washington — 1775
Category: Founders on Founders
[I]f you speak of solid information and sound judgement, Colonel Washington is, unquestionably the greatest man on that floor.
Thomas Jefferson
Autobiography — 1821
Category: Federal Government
Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to Charles Hammond — 1821
Category: Federal Government
[W]hen all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to Judge William Johnson — 1823
Category: Federalism
[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore...never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market.
Thomas Jefferson
deleted portion of a draft of the Declaration of Independence — 1776
Category: Slavery
He [King George] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred right of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.
Pierce Butler
letter to Weedon Butler — 1788
Category: The Presidency
I am free to acknowledge that His Powers are full great, and greater than I was disposed to make them. Nor, Entre Nous, do I believe they would have been so great had not many of the members cast their eyes towards General Washington as President; and shaped their Ideas of the Powers to be given to a President, by their opinions of his Virtue.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to George Washington — 1796
Category: Arms
One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
Thomas Jefferson
on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones — 1814
Category: Founders on Founders
[H]is was the singular destiny and merit, of leading the armies of his country successfully through an arduous war, for the establishment of its independence; of conducting its councils through the birth of a government, new in its forms and principles, until it had settled down into a quite and orderly train; and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the history of the world furnishes no other example.
Thomas Jefferson
on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones — 1814
Category: Founders on Founders
His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect and noble.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to George Washington — 1784
Category: Equality
The foundation on which all [constitutions] are built is the natural equality of man, the denial of every preeminence but that annexed to legal office, and particularly the denial of a preeminence by birth.
Thomas Jefferson
on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones — 1814
Category: Founders on Founders
His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect and noble.
John Marshall
official eulogy of George Washington, delivered by Richard Henry Lee — 1799
Category: Founders on Founders
First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in humble and enduring scenes of private life. Pious, just humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform dignified, and commanding; his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting; correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private charter gave effulgence to his public virtues;. Such was the man for whom our nation morns
Thomas Jefferson
on George Washington in a letter to William Branch Giles — 1795
Category: Founders on Founders
[T]he President, who errs as other men do, but errs with integrity.
Thomas Jefferson
on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones — 1814
Category: Founders on Founders
His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man.
Thomas Jefferson
on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones — 1814
Category: Founders on Founders
On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance.
Thomas Jefferson
on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones — 1814
Category: Founders on Founders
Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed.
Thomas Jefferson
on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones — 1814
Category: Founders on Founders
His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order; his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of Newton, Bacon, or Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder
Thomas Jefferson
letter to George Washington — 1792
Category: The Press
No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.
George Washington
letter to Steptoe Washington — 1790
Category: Character
[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to The Republican Citizens of Washington County, Maryland — 1809
Category: Government
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.
George Washington
letter to John Augustine Washington — 1776
Category: Government
To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must be bad.
Fisher Ames
letter to George Richard Minot — 1789
Category: Law
I am commonly opposed to those who modestly assume the rank of champions of liberty, and make a very patriotic noise about the people. It is the stale artifice which has duped the world a thousand times, and yet, though detected, it is still successful. I love liberty as well as anybody. I am proud of it, as the true title of our people to distinction above others; but...I would guard it by making the laws strong enough to protect it.
James Madison
in response to Washington's first Inaugural address — 1789
Category: Justice
If individuals be not influenced by moral principles; it is in vain to look for public virtue; it is, therefore, the duty of legislators to enforce, both by precept and example, the utility, as well as the necessity of a strict adherence to the rules of distributive justice.
Thomas Jefferson
letter to George Logan — 1805
Category: Politics and Parties
The duty of an upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing of these family dissentions, and to cherish the good principles of both parties.
Benjamin Franklin
letter to George Whatley — 1785
Category: House of Representatives
They are of the People, and return again to mix with the People, having no more durable preeminence than the different Grains of Sand in an Hourglass. Such an Assembly cannot easily become dangerous to Liberty. They are the Servants of the People, sent together to do the People's Business, and promote the public Welfare; their Powers must be sufficient, or their Duties cannot be performed. They have no profitable Appointments, but a mere Payment of daily Wages, such as are scarcely equivalent to their Expences; so that, having no Chance for great Places, and enormous Salaries or Pensions, as in some Countries, there is no triguing or bribing for Elections.