James Madison Quotes
The powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has legislative powers on defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction.
The ultimate authority resides in the people, and that if the federal government got too powerful and overstepped its authority, then the people would develop plans of resistance and resort to arms.
To provide employment for the poor, and support for the indigent, is among the primary, and, at the same time, not least difficult cares of the public authority.
War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.
It is vain to say that enlightened statesmen will always be able to adjust their interests. Enlightened men will not always be at the helm.
I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.
Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.
A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.
Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance.
The power of taxing people and their property is essential to the very existence of government.
It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage...Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.
There is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust.
The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
Thus the right of nullification meant by Mr. Jefferson is the natural right, which all admit to be a remedy against insupportable oppression.
Toleration is not the opposite of intolerance, but is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, the other of granting it.
A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.
Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not.
To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.
The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.
Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.
The number of individuals employed under the Constitution of the United States will be much smaller than the number employed under the particular States.
A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.
The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property.
Happily for America, happily, we trust, for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society.
I consider the difference between a system founded on the legislatures only, and one founded on the people, to be the true difference between a league or treaty and a constitution.
They can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society.
Torrents of blood have been spilt in the world in vain attempts of the secular arm to extinguish religious discord, by proscribing all differences in religious opinions.
America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.
The nation which reposes on the pillow of political confidence, will sooner or later end its political existence in a deadly lethargy.
Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.
If we advert to the nature of republican government, we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the government, and not in the government over the people.
We've staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all our heart.
What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?
On the distinctive principles of the Government ... of the U. States, the best guides are to be found in ... The Declaration of Independence, as the fundamental Act of Union of these States.
No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment.
It may be concluded that a pure democracy . . . can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction.
The Constitution of the U.S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion.
The President is responsible to the public for the conduct of the person he has nominated and appointed.
It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.
The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it.
A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
Nothing is so contagious as opinion, especially on questions which, being susceptible of very different glosses, beget in the mind a distrust of itself.