Founders Quotes collection

George Washington “What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.”

 

John Jay “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

 

John Adams “The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity”

 

Benjamin Franklin “God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”

Benjamin Rush “…the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible”

 

Elias Boudinot “Be religiously careful in our choice of all public officers . . . and judge of the tree by its fruits.”

 

Alexander Hamilton “[regarding] The Christian Constitutional Society, its object is first: The support of the Christian religion. Second: The support of the United States.”

 

James Madison “We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart.”

 

John Hancock “We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!”

 

John Quincy Adams “…the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the savior…”

 

Thomas Jefferson “The doctrines of Jesus are simple,  and tend to all the happiness of man.”

 

Samuel Adams       “Our forefathers opened the Bible to all.”

 

Patrick Henry “It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”

 

Noah Webster “In my view, the Christian religion is the most important  and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed.”

 

 

Founders Quote Database - Advice

Benjamin Franklin

1742 - Poor Richard's Almanack

Have you something to do to-morrow; do it to-day.

Reference: Poor Richard: The Almanakcs for the Years, 1733-1758, intro by Van Wyck Brooks (94)

Benjamin Franklin

1746 - Poor Richard's Almanack

Wish not so much to live long as to live well.

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, Library of America (1209)

Benjamin Franklin

1747 - Poor Richard's Almanack

Strive to be the greatest man in your country, and you may be disappointed. Strive to be the best and you may succeed: he may well win the race that runs by himself.

Reference: Bartlett's Quotations (177)

Benjamin Franklin

1748 - Advice to a Young Tradesman

Remember, that Time is Money.

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, Library of America (1198)

Benjamin Franklin

1748 - Advice to Young Tradesman

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, Library of America (320)

Benjamin Franklin

1771 - null

Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

Benjamin Franklin

1771 - Autobiography

Human Felicity is produced not so much by great Pieces of good Fortune that seldom happen, as by little Advantages that occur every Day.

Reference: Autobiography, Franklin (207) [Sheehan (3:3)]

John Jay

Federalist No. 2

This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest of ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.

Reference: Jay, Federalist No. 2 (38)

Thomas Jefferson

1785 - letter to Peter Carr

It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (815)

Thomas Jefferson

1787 - letter to Martha Jefferson

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing. And that you may be always doing good, my dear, is the ardent prayer of yours affectionately.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (294)

Thomas Jefferson

1791 - letter to John Sinclair

It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some other.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 8:231.

Thomas Jefferson

1825 - letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith

This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and excellent father has requested that I would address to you something which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life you have to run; and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that course. Few words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world, every action of your life will be under my regard. Farewell.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 413.

George Washington

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (13)

George Washington

1777 - letter to Philip Schuyler

We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 16.

George Washington

1788 - letter to Charles Pettit

 [T]he great Searcher of human hearts is my witness, that I have no wish, which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 131.

James Wilson

1791 - Lectures on Law

In planning, forming, and arranging laws, deliberation is always becoming, and always useful.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed., vol. 1 (293-296); original Lectures on Law, Wilson,

Founders Quote Database - Agriculture

Benjamin Franklin

1769 - Positions to be Examined

Finally, there seem to be but three Ways for a Nation to acquire Wealth. The first is by War as the Romans did in plundering their conquered Neighbours. This is Robbery. The second by Commerce which is generally Cheating. The third by Agriculture the only honest Way; wherein Man receives a real Increase of the Seed thrown into the Ground, in a kind of continual Miracle wrought by the Hand of God in his favour, as a Reward for his innocent Life, and virtuous Industry.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 645.

George Washington

1788 - letter to Marquis de Lafayette

I hope, some day or another, we shall become a storehouse and granary for the world.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 51.

George Washington

1796 - Eighth Annual Message to Congress

It will not be doubted, that with reference either to individual, or National Welfare, Agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion as Nations advance in population, and other circumstances of maturity, this truth becomes more apparent; and renders the cultivation of the Soil more and more, an object of public patronage.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 67.

Founders Quote Database - America

Patrick Henry

1774 - speech in the First Continental Congress

I am not a Virginian, but an American.

Reference: Patrick Henry: Life Corerespondence and Speeches, Wirt, ed., vol. 1 (220); original Life and Works of John Adams, vol. 2 (365)

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - letter to Elbridge Gerry

The steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor; and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate and steady conduct, will at length rally to a proper system the great body of our country. Unequivocal in principle, reasonable in manner, we shall be able I hope to do a great deal of good to the cause of freedom & harmony.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1090)

Thomas Jefferson

1805 - Second Inaugural Address

We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States.

James Madison

Federalist No. 41.

Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 41

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 14

Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights and public happiness.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 14.

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (5)

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 718.

George Washington

1785 - letter to James Madison

We are either a United people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all maters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (315)

George Washington

1788 - letter to Benjamin Lincoln

No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings than United America. Wondrously strange, then, and much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect the means and to depart from the road which Providence has pointed us to so plainly; I cannot believe it will ever come to pass.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (403)

Founders Quote Database - Arms

Recommended Bill of Rights from the Virginia Ratifying Convention

1778

That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided, as far as the circumstances and protection of the community will admit; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

Reference: The Debates of the Several State..., Elliot, vol. 3 (659)

John Adams

A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States

To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, counties or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

Reference: A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States, Adams, vol. 3 (475)

Cesare Beccaria

On Crimes and Punishment, quoted by Thomas Jefferson in Commonplace Book

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

Reference: The Commonplace Book, Jefferson (298-316)

Federal Farmer

1778 - Antifederalist Letter, No.18

 [W]hereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.

Reference: The Complete Anti-Federalist, Storing, ed., vol. 2 (342) The Founders Constitution

Albert Gallatin

1789 - letter to Alexander Addison

The whole of that Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals...[I]t establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.

Reference: That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right, Halbrook; original MS. in N.Y. Hist. Soc.-A.G. Papers, 2

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 29

If a well-regulated militia be the most natural defense of a free country, it ought certainly to be under the regulation and at the disposal of that body which is constituted the guardian of the national security. If standing armies are dangerous to liberty, an efficacious power over the militia in the same body ought, as far as possible, to take away the inducement and the pretext to such unfriendly institutions. If the federal government can command the aid of the militia in those emergencies which call for the military arm in support of the civil magistrate, it can the better dispense with the employment of a different kind of force. If it cannot avail itself of the former, it will be obliged to recur to the latter. To render an army unnecessary will be a more certain method of preventing its existence than a thousand prohibitions upon paper.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 29.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 29

There is something so far-fetched and so extravagant in the idea of danger to liberty from the militia that one is at a loss whether to treat it with gravity or with raillery; whether to consider it as a mere trial of skill, like the paradoxes of rhetoricians; as a disingenuous artifice to instil prejudices at any price; or as the serious.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 29.

Patrick Henry

1778 - speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.

Reference: The Debates of the Several State..., Elliot, vol. 3 (45)

Patrick Henry

1778 - speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention

O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone; and you have no longer an aristocratical, no longer a democratical spirit. Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation, brought about by the punishment of those in power, inflicted by those who had no power at all?

Reference: The Debates of the Several State..., Elliot, vol. 3 (51)

Thomas Jefferson

1776 - Draft Constitution for the State of Virginia

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands].

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 344.

Thomas Jefferson

1785 - letter to Peter Carr

A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.

Reference: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Library of Congress, Mansucript Division, Microfilm Roll #4

Thomas Jefferson

1796 - letter to George Washington

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.

Reference: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Library of Congress, Mansucript Division, Microfilm Roll #51

Thomas Jefferson

1824 - letter to John Cartwright

We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles . The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, ed., vol. 16 (45)

Zacharia Johnson

1778 - speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention

[T]he people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them.

Reference: The Debates of the Several State..., Elliot, vol. 3 (646)

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 48

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 46.

George Mason

1778 - speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention

 [W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, - who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.

Reference: The Debates of the Several State..., Elliot, vol. 3 (380)

Noah Webster

1787 - An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.

Reference: Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, Ford (29)

Founders Quote Database - Budget

Benjamin Franklin

1737 - Poor Richard's Almanack

A penny saved is twopence clear.

Reference: Poor Richard: The Almanacks, for the Years, 1733-1758, Intro by Van Wyck Brooks (47)

Benjamin Franklin

1758 - from his writings

He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, ed., Library of America (1300)

Alexander Hamilton

1790 - Report on Public Credit

As on the one hand, the necessity for borrowing in particular emergencies cannot be doubted, so on the other, it is equally evident that to be able to borrow upon good terms, it is essential that the credit of a nation should be well established.

Reference: The Reports of Alexander Hamilton, Cooke, ed. (2)

Thomas Jefferson

1789 - letter to James Madison

But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years.

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 962.

Thomas Jefferson

1808 - letter to Shelton Gilliam

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.

Reference: respec quoted

Thomas Jefferson

1813 - letter to John Wayles Eppes

It is a wise rule and should be fundamental in a government disposed to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it within the limits of its faculties, "never to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith."

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 1280.

Thomas Jefferson

1816 - letter to Samuel Kercheval

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1400)

Thomas Jefferson

1816 - letter to John Taylor

The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford, ed., vol. 11 (533)

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - letter to Spencer Roane

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.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 15 (325)

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to Marquis de Lafayette

 [A] rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 15 (491)

James Madison

Federalist No. 39

That the most productive system of finance will always be the least burdensome.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 39.

James Madison

1790 - Speech in Congress

There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises. To say that the United States should be answerable for twenty-five millions of dollars without knowing whether the ways and means can be provided, and without knowing whether those who are to succeed us will think with us on the subject, would be rash and unjustifiable. Sir, in my opinion, it would be hazarding the public faith in a manner contrary to every idea of prudence.

Reference: Advice to my Country, Mattern, 38.

George Washington

1793 - Message to the House of Representatives

No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 64.

Founders Quote Database - Bureaucracy

Thomas Jefferson

1802 - letter to Thomas Cooper

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

Reference: respec quoted

Thomas Jefferson

1824 - letter to William Ludlow

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1497)

James Madison (likely)

1788 - Federalist No. 62

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be to-morrow.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 62.

James Madison

1788 - speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention

There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

Reference: Bartlett's Quotations (352)

Founders Quote Database - Character

Samuel Adams

1749 - essay in The Public Advertiser

 [N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.

Reference: The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams, William Wells, vol. 1 (22)

Samuel Adams

1775 - letter to James Warren

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

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (343); original The Writings of Samuel Adams, Cushing, ed., vol. 3 (236-237)

Samuel Adams

1775 - letter to James Warren

Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (343); original The Writings of Samuel Adams, Cushing, ed., vol. 3 (236-237)

Thomas Jefferson

1781 - Notes on Virginia Query 19

It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (291)

George Washington

1788 - letter to John Armstrong

 [T]he first transactions of a nation, like those of an individual upon his first entrance into life make the deepest impression, and are to form the leading traits in its character.

Reference: A Sacred Union of Citizens, Spalding and Garrity (10); original The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript S

George Washington

1789 - letter to the Residents of Boston

Your love of liberty - your respect for the laws - your habits of industry - and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness.

Reference: Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. (139)

George Washington

1789 - draft of first Inaugural Address

No compact among men...can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (454)

George Washington

1790 - letter to Steptoe Washington

 [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.

Reference: Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. (143)

Noah Webster

1789 - Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing His Education

In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character....

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (342); original Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing His Education, Webster (18-19)

John Witherspoon

1776 - The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men

Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue.

Reference: The Selected Writings of John Witherspoon, Miller ed. (140-1)

Founders Quote Database - Citizenship

Samuel Adams

1781 - in the Boston Gazette

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual - or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (344-5); original The Writings of Samuel Adams, Cushing, ed., vol. 4 (256)

George Washington

1775 - address to the New York Legislature

When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen; and we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in the happy hour when the establishment of American Liberty, upon the most firm and solid foundations shall enable us to return to our Private Stations in the bosom of a free, peacefully and happy Country.

Reference: Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. (94)

George Washington

1790 - letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island

The citizens of the United States of America have the right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were by the indulgence of one class of citizens that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (330)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (515)

Founders Quote Database - Commerce

Benjamin Franklin

Political Observations

It is very imprudent to deprive America of any of her privileges. If her commerce and friendship are of any importance to you, they are to be had on no other terms than leaving her in the full enjoyment of her rights.

Reference: The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks, ed., 297.

Benjamin Franklin and George Whaley

1774 - Principles of Tade

No nation was ever ruined by trade, even seemingly the most disadvantageous.

Reference: The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Sparks, ed., vol. 2 (401)

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 12

The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a primary object of its political cares.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 12.

Alexander Hamilton

1790 - Report on Manufactures

The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state, for the protection of its rights and interests: and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce among individuals. Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., 362.

Alexander Hamilton

1790 - Report on a National Bank

Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed. (362)

Alexander Hamilton

1791 - Report on Manufactures

Measures which serve to abridge the free competition of foreign Articles, have a tendency to occasion an enhancement of prices.

Reference: The Reports of Alexander Hamilton, Cooke, ed. (157)

Thomas Jefferson

1785 - letter to John Adams

I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty.

Reference: Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, Foley (361); original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford, ed., vol. 4 (81)

Thomas Jefferson

1797 - letter to Thomas Pickney

War is not the best engine for us to resort to; nature has given us one in our commerce, which if properly managed, will be a better instrument for obliging the interested nations of Europe to treat us with justice.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford, ed., vol. 8 (293)

James Madison (likely)

1788 - Federalist No. 62

Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue; or in any manner affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few not for the many.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 62.

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all Nations, are recommended by policy, humanity and interest. But even our Commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor granting exclusive favours or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of Commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with Powers so disposed; in order to give trade a stable course.

Reference: Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. (71)

Founders Quote Database - Congress

Fisher Ames

1789 - speech in the United States House of Representatives

We are not to consider ourselves, while here, as at church or school, to listen to the harangues of speculative piety; we are here to talk of the political interests committed to our charge.

Reference: Forge of Union, St. John (90); original James Madison: Father of the Constitution - 1787-1800, Brandt (248)

Oliver Ellsworth

1783 - letter to Governor Trumbull

The powers of congress must be defined, but their means must be adequate to the purposes of their constitution. It is possible there may be abuses and misapplications; still, it is better to hazard something than to hazard at all.

Reference: History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States of America, Bancroft, vol. 1 (324) [Sheehan (4:4)]

Benjamin Franklin

1784 - letter to William Strahan

But they have two other Rights; those of sitting when they please, and as long as they please, in which methinks they have the advantage of your Parliament; for they cannot be dissolved by the Breath of a Minister, or sent packing as you were the other day, when it was your earnest desire to have remained longer together.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 1099.

Thomas Jefferson

1782 - Notes on Virginia, Query 12

On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we have had already?

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 2:171.

Thomas Jefferson

1791 - Opinion on a National Bank

It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It [the Constitution] was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (418)

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - Autobiography

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send 150 lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, & talk by the hour? That 150 lawyers should do business together ought not to be expected.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (53)

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 46

A local spirit will infallibly prevail much more in the members of Congress than a national spirit will prevail in the legislatures of the particular States.

Reference: Madison, Federalist, No. 46.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 47

For the same reason that the members of the State legislatures will be unlikely to attach themselves sufficiently to national objects, the members of the federal legislature will be likely to attach themselves too much to local objects.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 46.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 48

The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 48

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 48

One hundred and seventy-three despots would surely be as oppressive as one.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 48.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 55

Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

Reference: Madison, Federalist, No. 55.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 50

The members of the legislative department...are numerous. They are distributed and dwell among the people at large. Their connections of blood, of friendship, and of acquaintance embrace a great proportion of the most influential part of the society...they are more immediately the confidential guardians of their rights and liberties.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 50 (316)

James Madison

1792 - letter to Edmund Pendleton

If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.

Reference: Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Fendall, ed., vol. 1 (546)

Founders Quote Database - Constitution

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

A constitution founded on these principles introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal.

Reference: The Political Writings of John Adams, Peek, ed. (91); original The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 4 (199)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

I trust that the proposed Constitution afford a genuine specimen of representative government and republican government; and that it will answer, in an eminent degree, all the beneficial purposes of society.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 30.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 34

Constitutions of civil government are not to be framed upon a calculation of existing exigencies, but upon a combination of these with the probable exigencies of ages, according to the natural and tried course of human affairs. Nothing, therefore, can be more fallacious than to infer the extent of any power, proper to be lodged in the national government, from an estimate of its immediate necessities.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 85

I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1794 - Essay in the American Daily Advertiser

If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws - the first growing out of the last. . . . A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.

Reference: Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton

1802 - letter to James Bayard

 [T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes - rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments.

Reference: Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton, Frisch, ed. (511)

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 57

The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virture to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.

Reference: The Federalist

Thomas Jefferson

1798 - fair copy of the drafts of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798

In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

Reference: respect. Quoted

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 37

It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the Constitution] a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 37 (230-31)

George Washington

1786 - letter to Chevalier de LaLuzerne

 [T]he foundation of a great Empire is laid, and I please myself with a persuasion, that Providence will not leave its work imperfect.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 26.

George Washington

1788 - letter to Marquis de Lafayette

Next Monday the Convention in Virginia will assemble; we have still good hopes of its adoption here: though by no great plurality of votes. South Carolina has probably decided favourably before this time. The plot thickens fast. A few short weeks will determine the political fate of America for the present generation, and probably produce no small influence on the happiness of society through a long succession of ages to come.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (398)

Noah Webster

1787 - An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution

In the formation of our constitution the wisdom of all ages is collected--the legislators are antiquity are consulted, as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. It short, it is an empire of reason.

Reference: The Life and Times of Noah Webster, Unger (1998), p 136.

Founders Quote Database - Constitutional Convention

John Adams

1788 - quoted in a letter from Rufus King to Theophilus Parsons

The deliberate union of so great and various a people in such a place, is without all partiality or prejudice, if not the greatest exertion of human understanding, the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen.

Reference: The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, King, vol. 1 (321)

Benjamin Franklin

Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787

A lady asked Dr. Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got - a republic or a monarchy?" "A republic," replied the Doctor, "if you can keep it."

Reference: The Records of the Federal Convention 0f 1781, Farrand, ed., vol. 3 (85)

Benjamin Franklin

To Colleagues at the Constitutional Convention

All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?"

Reference: Quoted by James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1987), pp. 209-

Thomas Jefferson

1789 - letter to David Humphreys

The example of changing a constitution by assembling the wise men of the state, instead of assembling armies, will be worth as much to the world as the former examples we had give them. The constitution, too, which was the result of our deliberation, is unquestionably the wisest ever yet presented to men.

Reference: 1787: The Grand Convention, Rossiter (257); original Papers of Jefferson, vol. 14 (678)

James Madison

1834 - letter to William Cogswell

You give me a credit to which I have no claim in calling me "the writer of the Constitution of the United States." This was not, like the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, the offspring of a single brain. It ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and many hands.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (204); original The Letters and other Writings of James Madison, Madison, vol. 4 (341-42)

James Madison

1835 - in a

Whatever may be the judgement pronounced on the competency of the architects of the Constitution, or whatever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction ... that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them.

Reference: 1787: The Grand Convention, Rossiter (316) original Madison, Brandt, ed., vol. 4 (515)

George Washington

1785 - letter to James Warren

Jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all our public councils for the good government of the Union. In a words, the confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance....

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (312)

George Washington

1786 - letter to James Madison

No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was every more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (339)

George Washington

1787 - as quoted by Gouverneur Morris in Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787

It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God.

Reference: George Washington and the New Nation, James Flexner (116-7)

George Washington

1788 - letter to Marquis de Lafayette

It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States ... should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to well founded objections.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (383)

Founders Quote Database - Constitutional Interpretation

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Alexander Hamilton

 [T]he Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the laws, and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought to give place to the Constitution. But this doctrine is not deducible from any circumstance peculiar to the plan of convention, but from the general theory of a limited Constitution.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 81 (482)

Thomas Jefferson

1791 - Opinion on National Bank

They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please...Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 3:148.

Thomas Jefferson

1791 - Opinion on a National Bank

It is an established rule of construction, where a phrase will bear either of two meanings to give it that which will allow some meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not that which will render all the others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given to them. It was intended to lace them up straitly with in the enumerated powers, and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.

Reference: Documents of American History, Commager, ed., vol. 1 (190)

Thomas Jefferson

1798 - Draft Kentucky Resolutions

The construction applied...to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate Congress a power...ought not to be construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the whole residue of that instrument.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (452)

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - letter to Mesrs. Eddy, Russel, Thurber, Wheaton and Smith

The Constitution on which our Union rests, shall be administered by me [as President] according to the safe and honest meaning contemplated by the plain understanding of the people of the United States at the time of its adoption - a meaning to be found in the explanations of those who advocated, not those who opposed it, and who opposed it merely lest the construction should be applied which they denounced as possible.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 10:248.

Thomas Jefferson

1803 - letter to Wilson Nicholas

Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 10:419.

Thomas Jefferson

1803 - letter to Wilson Nicholas

Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1140)

Thomas Jefferson

1808 - letter to Albert Gallatin

 [T]he true key for the construction of everything doubtful in a law is the intention of the law-makers. This is most safely gathered from the words, but may be sought also in extraneous circumstances provided they do not contradict the express words of the law.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 12 (59)

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to William Johnson

On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect 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.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1475)

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to William Johnson

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.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 15:450.

James Madison

1824 - letter to Henry Lee

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 is not the guide in expounding it, there may be no security

Reference: Advice to my Country, Mattern, 34-35.

James Madison

1824 - letter to Henry Lee

"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. ... If the meaning of the text be sought in the changeable meaning of the words composing it, it is evident that the shape and attributes of the Government must partake of the changes to which the words and phrases of all living languages are constantly subject. What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its modern sense. And that the language of our Constitution is already undergoing interpretations unknown to its founder, will I believe appear to all unbiassed Enquirers into the history of its origin and adoption."

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

The constitution of the United States is to receive a reasonable interpretation of its language, and its powers, keeping in view the objects and purposes, for which those powers were conferred. By a reasonable interpretation, we mean, that in case the words are susceptible of two different senses, the one strict, the other more enlarged, that should be adopted, which is most consonant with the apparent objects and intent of the Constitution.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 140.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

The plain import of the clause is, that congress shall have all the incidental and instrumental powers, necessary and proper to carry into execution all the express powers. It neither enlarges any power specifically granted; nor is it a grant of any new power to congress. But it is merely a declaration for the removal of all uncertainty, that the means of carrying into execution those, otherwise granted, are included in the grant.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 433.

James Wilson

1790 - Of the Study of Law in the United States

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

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (22); original The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, B. Wilson, ed., vol. 1 (14)

Founders Quote Database - Courage

John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson

1775 - Declaration of the Cause and Necessity of Taking up Arms

With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live as slaves.

Reference: Documents of American History, Commager, ed., vol. 1 (95)

Patrick Henry

1775 - Speech to the Virginia Convention

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Reference: Respectfully Quoted

Patrick Henry

1775 - speech in the Virginia Convention

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

Reference: American Heritage Dictionary of American Quotations (130)

John Paul Jones

1778 - letter to M. Le Ray de Chaumont

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.

Reference: John Paul Jones: Fighter for Freedom and Glory, Lorenz (xii)

John Paul Jones

1779 - response to enemy demand to surrender

I have not yet begun to fight!

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (948); original Life and Character of Jones, Sherburne (126-129)

John Paul Jones

1782 - letter to Gouverneur Morris

An honorable Peace is and always was my first wish! I can take no delight in the effusion of human Blood; but, if this War should continue, I wish to have the most active part in it.

Reference: resp. quoted

Peter Muhlenberg

1776 - from a Lutheran sermon read at Woodstock, Virginia

There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has now come.

Reference: resp. quoted

Thomas Paine

1776 - The American Crisis, No. 1

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (91)

Thomas Paine

1776 - The Crisis, no 1

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

Reference: respec. Quoted

George Washington

1776 - General Orders

We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our won Country's Honor, all call upon us for vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (71)

Founders Quote Database - Declaration of Independence

John Adams

1776 - letter to Abigail Adams

It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (64)

John Adams

1826 - last public words as a toast for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Independence forever.

Reference: The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Thompson, ed. (xiv)

Benjamin Franklin

1776 - at the signing of the Declaration of Independence

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

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (29) and Respectfully Quoted

John Hancock

1776 - upon signing the Declaration of Independence

There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (29)

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - letter to John Adams

 [T]he flames kindled on the 4 of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.

Reference: Thomas Jefferson: The Apostle of Americanism, Chinard (517); original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipsco

Thomas Jefferson

1825 - letter to Henry Lee

This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1501)

Richard Henry Lee

1776 - Resolution in Congress

Resolved: That these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved of all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective colonies for their consideration and approbation.

Reference: Commager's Documents

James Madison

1825 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

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.

Reference: James Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (809)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries; tis time to part.

John Witherspoon

1776 - debate over the Declaration

In my judgement it is not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of becoming rotten for the want of it.

Reference: The Piety of John Witherspoon, Tait

Founders Quote Database - Democracy

John Adams

1763 - An Essay on Man's Lust for Power

 [D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (338); original The Papers of John Adams, Taylor, ed., vol. 1 (83)

John Adams

1814 - letter to John Taylor

ever lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (335); original The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 6 (484)

Fisher Ames

1788 - speech in the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention

The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.

Reference: The Works of Fisher Ames, W.B. Allen, ed., vol. 1 (546)

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 10

 [D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 10 (8

Founders Quote Database - Despotism

James Wilson

1790 - Of the Study of the Law in the United States

Illustrious examples are displayed to our view, that we may imitate as well as admire. Before we can be distinguished by the same honors, we must be distinguished by the same virtues. What are those virtues? They are chiefly the same virtues, which we have already seen to be descriptive of the American character -- the love of liberty, and the love of law.

Reference: The Learning of Liberty, Prangle and Prangle (207); original Selected Political Essays of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed. (189)

Founders Quote Database - Education

John Adams

1756 - Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law

It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (253)

John Adams

1765 - Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 253.

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

Laws for the liberal education of the youth, especially of the lower class of the people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 199.

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates... to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 259.

John Adams

1787 - Defense of the Constitutions

Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.

Reference: The Learning of Liberty, Prangle and Prangle (96); original The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 6 (168)

Samuel Adams

1775 - letter to James Warren

No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (261)

Benjamin Franklin

1733 - Poor Richard's Almanack

A fine genius in his own country is like gold in the mine.

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, ed., Library of America (1188)

Benjamin Franklin

1749 - Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania

The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths. Almost all Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 324.

Thomas Jefferson

1787 - letter to Edward Carrington

Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves.

Reference: The Learning of Liberty, Prangle, 111.

Thomas Jefferson

1787 - letter to Edward Carrington

Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (880)

Thomas Jefferson

1807 - letter to Joel Barlow

People generally have more feeling for canals and roads than education. However, I hope we can advance them with equal pace.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, ed., vol. 5 (521)

Thomas Jefferson

1810 - letter to Trustees for the Lottery of East Tennessee College

No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, ed., vol. 5 (521)

Thomas Jefferson

1816 - letter to Dupont de Nemours

Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford, ed., vol. 11 (526)

Thomas Jefferson

1817 - letter to Jose Correa de Serra

To all of which is added a selection from the elementary schools of subjects of the most promising genius, whose parents are too poor to give them further education, to be carried at the public expense through the college and university. The object is to bring into action that mass of talents which lies buried in poverty in every country, for want of the means of development, and thus give activity to a mass of mind, which, in proportion to our population, shall be double or treble of what it is in most countries.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, ed., vol. 7 (94-5)

Thomas Jefferson

1818 - Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia

To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing; To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor, and judgment; And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 459.

Thomas Jefferson

1820 - letter to Joseph Cabell

The truth is that the want of common education with us is not from our poverty, but from the want of an orderly system. More money is now paid for the education of a part than would be paid for that of the whole if systematically arranged.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 15 (291)

Thomas Jefferson

1820 - letter to Joseph C. Cabell

All the States but our own are sensible that knowlege is power.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford, ed., vol. 12 (155)

James Madison

1822 - letter to W.T. Barry

A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Reference: Letters and other Writings of James Madison, vol. 3 (276)

James Madison

1822 - letter to W.T. Barry

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual & surest support?

Reference: Letters and other Writings of James Madison, vol. 3 (279)

James Madison

1826 - letter to Littleton Dennis Teackle

The best service that can be rendered to a Country, next to that of giving it liberty, is in diffusing the mental improvement equally essential to the preservation, and the enjoyment of the blessing.

Reference: Advice to My Country, Mattern ed. (42); original Madison Papers in the Library of Congress

Thomas Paine

1792 - Rights of Man, part 2

A nation under a well regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government only that requires ignorance for its support.

Reference: Paine, Collected Writings

George Washington

1790 - First Annual Message

Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (469)

George Washington

1795 - letter to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia

 [W]e ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds, from being too strongly, and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems, before they are capable of appreciating their own.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 75.

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (522)

Noah Webster

1790 - On Education of Youth in America

It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.

Reference: The Learning of Liberty, Prangle and Prangle (126); original Noah Webster: Schoolmaster to America, Harry Warfel (42)

James Wilson

1790 - Of the Study of the Law in the United States

Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge.

Reference: The Learning of Liberty, Prangle and Prangle (207); original Selected Political Essays of James Wilson, Randolph Adams, ed. (189

Founders Quote Database - Equality

The Declaration of Independence

1776

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. . .

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 1 (29)

John Adams

1776 - letter to Patrick Henry

The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the sachems, the nabobs, call them by what names you please, sigh and groan and fret, and sometimes stamp and foam and curse, but all in vain. The decree is gone forth, and it cannot be recalled, that a more equal liberty than has prevailed in other parts of the earth must be established in America.

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (306); original The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 9 (387-88)

Thomas Jefferson

1784 - letter to George Washington

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.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (791)

James Madison

1820 - letter to Jacob de la Motta

Equal laws protecting equal rights; the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.

Reference: respec. Quot

George Washington

1789 - draft of First Inaugural Address

I rejoice in a belief that intellectual light will spring up in the dark corners of the earth; that freedom of enquiry will produce liberality of conduct; that mankind will reverse the absurd position that the many were, made for the few; and that they will not continue slaves in one part of the globe, when they can become freemen in another.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (456)

Founders Quote Database - Family

Abigail Adams

1783 - letter to John Quincy Adams

What is it that affectionate parents require of their Children; for all their care, anxiety, and toil on their accounts? Only that they would be wise and virtuous, Benevolent and kind.

Reference: The Adams Family Correspondence, Richard Alan Ryerson, ed., vol. 5

Abigail Adams

1784 - letter to John Adams

I hope some future day will bring me the happiness of seeing my family again collected under our own roof, happy in ourselves and blessed in each other.

Reference: The Adams Family Correspondence, Richard Alan Ryerson, ed., vol. 5

John Adams

1778 - Diary

The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. . . . How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 3 (171)

John Adams

1814 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

As long as Property exists, it will accumulate in Individuals and Families. As long as Marriage exists, Knowledge, Property and Influence will accumulate in Families.

Reference: The Founders Constitution, Website < https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/>; original The Adams-Jefferson Letters, Cappon, ed

Samuel Adams

1780 - letter to Thomas wells

 [T]he importance of piety and religion; of industry and frugality; of prudence, economy, regularity and an even government; all ... are essential to the well-being of a family.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (346); original The Writings of Samuel Adams, Cushing, ed., vol. 4 (225)

Samuel Adams

1780 - letter to Thomas Wells

Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security.

Reference: The Writing of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, ed., vol. 4 (225)

Benjamin Franklin

Reply to a Piece of Advice

And as to the Cares, they are chiefly what attend the bringing up of Children; and I would ask any Man who has experienced it, if they are not the most delightful Cares in the World; and if from that Particular alone, he does not find the Bliss of a double State much greater, instead of being less than he expected.

Reference: Franklin: Collected Works, Lemay, ed. (249)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.

Reference: Thomas Paine, Common Sense.

James Wilson

1791 - Lectures on Law

It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness.

Reference: Vindicating the Founders, West (100); original Works, Wilson,

James Wilson

1792 - Of the Natural Rights of Individuals

The most important consequence of marriage is, that the husband and the wife become in law only one person... Upon this principle of union, almost all the other legal consequences of marriage depend. This principle, sublime and refined, deserves to be viewed and examined on every side.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, Andrews, ed., vol. 1 (324)

Founders Quote Database - Federal Government

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - remarks to the New York Ratifying Convention

The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense. In these are comprehended the regulation of commerce that is, the whole system of foreign intercourse; the support of armies and navies, and of the civil administration.

Reference: Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton, Frisch, ed. (228-229)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

I am persuaded that a firm union is as necessary to perpetuate our liberties as it is to make us respectable; and experience will probably prove that the National Government will be as natural a guardian of our freedom as the State Legislatures.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 28.

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - Autobiography

Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (74)

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - letter to Charles Hammond

 [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.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (261); original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 15 (3

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 14

In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws: its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 14

Founders Quote Database - Federalism

Tenth Amendment to the Constitution (Bill of Rights)

1791

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Reference: Constitution of the United States

Federal Farmer

1787 - Antifederalist Letter

Besides, to lay and collect internal taxes in this extensive country must require a great number of congressional ordinances, immediately operation upon the body of the people; these must continually interfere with the state laws and thereby produce disorder and general dissatisfaction till the one system of laws or the other, operating upon the same subjects, shall be abolished.

Reference: The Essential Antifederalist, Allen, ed. (187)

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 9

The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 17

There is one transcendant advantage belonging to the province of the State governments... --I mean the ordinary administration of criminal and civil justice.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 32

But as the plan of the convention aims only at a partial union or consolidation, the State governments would clearly retain all the rights of sovereignty which they before had, and which were not, by that act, EXCLUSIVELY delegated to the United States.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech at the New York Ratifying Convention

When you assemble from your several counties in the Legislature, were every member to be guided only by the apparent interest of his county, government would be impracticable. There must be a perpetual accomodation and sacrifice of local advantage to general expediency.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 44.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

The local interest of a State ought in every case to give way to the interests of the Union. For when a sacrifice of one or the other is necessary, the former becomes only an apparent, partial interest, and should yield, on the principle that the smaller good ought never to oppose the greater good.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., 44.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

While the constitution continues to be read, and its principles known, the states, must, by every rational man, be considered as essential component parts of the union; and therefore the idea of sacrificing the former to the latter is totally inadmissible.

Reference: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Syrett, ed., vol. 5 (70-71) [Sheehan (7:3)]

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

This balance between the National and State governments ought to be dwelt on with peculiar attention, as it is of the utmost importance. It forms a double security to the people. If one encroaches on their rights they will find a powerful protection in the other. Indeed, they will both be prevented from overpassing their constitutional limits by a certain rivalship, which will ever subsist between them.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., vol. 2 (28)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

The State governments possess inherent advantages, which will ever give them an influence and ascendancy over the National Government, and will for ever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments. That their liberties, indeed, can be subverted by the federal head, is repugnant to every rule of political calculation.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., vol.2 (17)

Thomas Jefferson

1791 - Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition.

Reference: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Boyd, ed., vol. 19 (276)

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to Judge William Johnson

 [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.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (261); original Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Je

James Madison

Federalist No. 45

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 45

James Madison

Notes on Nullification

It becomes all therefore who are friends of a Government based on free principles to reflect, that by denying the possibility of a system partly federal and partly consolidated, and who would convert ours into one either wholly federal or wholly consolidated, in neither of which forms have individual rights, public order, and external safety, been all duly maintained, they aim a deadly blow at the last hope of true liberty on the face of the Earth.

Reference: Mind of the Founder, Meyers (441); original Writings, Madison, vol. 9 (573-607)

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 39

Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution.

Reference: The Federalist

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 45

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security.

Reference: The Federalist

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 46

But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm... But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal government to such an extremity.

Reference: The Federalist

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

The true test is, whether the object be of a local character, and local use; or, whether it be of general benefit to the states. If it be purely local, congress cannot constitutionally appropriate money for the object. But, if the benefit be general, it matters not, whether in point of locality it be in one state, or several; whether it be of large, or of small extent.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 453.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

So that the executive and legislative branches of the national government depend upon, and emanate from the states. Every where the state sovereignties are represented; and the national sovereignty, as such, has no representation.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 191.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

The state governments have a full superintendence and control over the immense mass of local interests of their respective states, which connect themselves with the feelings, the affections, the municipal institutions, and the internal arrangements of the whole population. They possess, too, the immediate administration of justice in all cases, civil and criminal, which concern the property, personal rights, and peaceful pursuits of their own citizens.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 191.

Joseph Story

In the next place, the state governments are, by the very theory of the constitution, essential constituent parts of the general government. They can exist without the latter, but the latter cannot exist without them.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 191.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

Another not unimportant consideration is, that the powers of the general government will be, and indeed must be, principally employed upon external objects, such as war, peace, negotiations with foreign powers, and foreign commerce. In its internal operations it can touch but few objects, except to introduce regulations beneficial to the commerce, intercourse, and other relations, between the states, and to lay taxes for the common good. The powers of the states, on the other hand, extend to all objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, and liberties, and property of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the state.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 192.

Founders Quote Database - Founders on Founders

John Adams

1799 - message to the U.S. Senate

His Example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read.

Reference: Life of Washington, John Marshal, vol. 5

Patrick Henry

1775 - on George Washington

 [I]f you speak of solid information and sound judgement, Colonel Washington is, unquestionably the greatest man on that floor.

Reference: The Life and Character of Patrick Henry, Writ (132)

Patrick Henry

1790 - on James Madison

Eloquence has been defined to be the art of persuasion. If it included persuasion by convincing, Mr. Madison was the most eloquent man I ever heard.

Reference: James Madison, Brandt, vol. 3 (194); original Henry Papers, Rives, ed., vol. 2 (612n)

Thomas Jefferson

on Alexander Hamilton in The Anas

Hamilton was indeed a singular character. Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and honorable in all private transactions, amiable in society, and duly valuing virtue in private life, yet so bewitched & perverted by the British example, as to be under thoro' conviction that corruption was essential to the government of a nation.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (671)

Thomas Jefferson

1795 - on George Washington in a letter to William Branch Giles

[T]he President, who errs as other men do, but errs with integrity.

Reference: The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress, American Memory Collection

Thomas Jefferson

1800 - Jefferson, on Jefferson, in

I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all? I do not know that it is. I have been the instrument of doing the following things; but they would have been done by others; some of them, perhaps, a little better.

Reference: resp. quoted

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones

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.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1318-19)

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones

Although in the circle of his friends, where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. In public, when called on for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short and embarrassed.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1319)

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones

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.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1319)

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones

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.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1318)

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones

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

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1318)

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones

His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect and noble.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1319)

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones

 [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.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1319-20)

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - on George Washington in a letter to Dr. Walter Jones

His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect and noble.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1319)

Thomas Jefferson

1824 - on Patrick Henry

His temper was excellent, and he generally observed decorum in debate. On one or two occasions I have seen him angry, and his anger was terrible; those who witnessed it, were not disposed to rouse it again.

Reference: The Complete Jefferson, Padover, ed. (904); original The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster (1857)

James Madison

1826 - on Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Samuel Harrison Smith

He was certainly one of the most learned men of the age. It may be said of him as has been said of others that he was a "walking Library," and what can be said of but few such prodigies, that the Genius of Philosophy ever walked hand in hand with him.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Hunt, ed., vol. 9 (260-61)

James Madison

1826 - on Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Nicholas P. Trist

 [He] will live in the memory and gratitude of the wise & good, as a luminary of Science, as a votary of liberty, as a model of patriotism, and as a benefactor of human kind.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (812)

John Marshall

1799 - official eulogy of George Washington, delivered by Richard Henry Lee

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

Reference: Patriot Sage, Spalding

William Pierce

1787 - on James Madison

Every person seems to acknowledge his greatness. He blends together the profound politician with the scholar.

Reference: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1781, Farrand, ed., vol. 3 (94); original Character Sketches of the Delegates to the Fe

William Pierce

1787 - on Benjamin Franklin

Well known to be the greatest philosopher of the present age; -- all the operations of nature he seems to understand, --the very heavens obey him, and the Clouds yield up their Lightning to be imprisoned in his rod.

Reference: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1781, Farrand, ed., vol. 3 (91); original Character Sketches of the Delegates to the Fe

Benjamin Rush

1812 - to John Adams

Some talked, some wrote, and some fought to promote and establish it, but you and Mr. Jefferson thought for us all. I never take a retrospect of the years 1775 and 1776 without associating your opinions and speeches and conversations with all the great political, moral, and intellectual achievements of the Congress of those memorable years.

Reference: Letters of Benjamin Rush, Butterfield, ed., vol. 2 (1127)

Founders Quote Database - God

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

It is the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping GOD in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 221.

Benjamin Franklin

1787 - Motion for Prayers in the Constitutional Convention

I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth, that God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?

Reference: Franklin: Collected Works, Lemay, ed. (1138)

Benjamin Franklin

1787 - Motion for Prayers in the Constitutional Convention

And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need its assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth, that God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 1138.

Alexander Hamilton

To grant that there is a supreme intelligence who rules the world and has established laws to regulate the actions of his creatures; and still to assert that man, in a state of nature, may be considered as perfectly free from all restraints of law and government, appears to a common understanding altogether irreconcilable. Good and wise men, in all ages, have embraced a very dissimilar theory. They have supposed that the deity, from the relations we stand in to himself and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever. This is what is called the law of nature....Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind.

Thomas Jefferson

1781 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18

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.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (352)

James Madison

1785 - A Memorial and Remonstrance

It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. 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.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (327)

James Madison

1825 - letter to Frederick Beasley

The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it.

Reference: Writings of Madison, Hunt, ed., vol. 9 (230)

George Washington

1783 - circular letter of farewell to the Army

I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (249)

George Washington

1789 - Thanksgiving Proclamation

It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (543)

George Washington

1790 - letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport

May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us in all our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (548)

James Wilson

1793 - Chisholm v. Georgia

A State, I cheerfully admit, is the noblest work of Man: But Man, himself, free and honest, is, I speak as to this world, the noblest work of God....

Reference: 2 U.S. 419 (1793)

Founders Quote Database - Government

Declaration of Independence

1776

Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 1:29.

John Adams

1770 - draft of a Newspaper Communication

Human government is more or less perfect as it approaches nearer or diverges farther from the imitation of this perfect plan of divine and moral government.

Reference: Diary and Autobiography, Adam's Papers, Butterfield, ed., vol. 1 (365)

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow that the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest numbers of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 17.

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 194.

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 194.

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 225.

Benjamin Franklin

1730 - On that Odd Letter of the Drum

That wise Men have in all Ages thought Government necessary for the Good of Mankind; and, that wise Governments have always thought Religion necessary for the well ordering and well-being of Society, and accordingly have been ever careful to encourage and protect the Ministers of it, paying them the highest publick Honours, that their Doctrines might thereby meet with the greater Respect among the common People.

Reference: Franklin Collected Writings, Lemay, ed., 148.

Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 15

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 15.

Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 26

The citizens of America have too much discernment to be argued into anarchy. and I am much mistaken if experience has not wrought a deep and solemn conviction in the public mind that greater energy of government is essential to the welfare and prosperity of the community.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 26.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

I will venture to assert that no combination of designing men under heaven will be capable of making a government unpopular which is in its principles a wise and good one, and vigorous in its operations.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 29.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Remarks in the New York Ratifying Convention

The true principle of government is this - make the system compleat in its structure; give a perfect proportion and balance to its parts; and the powers you give it will never affect your security.

Reference: Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton, Frisch, 197.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

The history of ancient and modern republics had taught them that many of the evils which those republics suffered arose from the want of a certain balance, and that mutual control indispensable to a wise administration. They were convinced that popular assemblies are frequently misguided by ignorance, by sudden impulses, and the intrigues of ambitious men; and that some firm barrier against these operations was necessary. They, therefore, instituted your Senate.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 43.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 65

If mankind were to resolve to agree in no institution of government, until every part of it had been adjusted to the most exact standard of perfection, society would soon become a general scene of anarchy, and the world a desert.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 65.

Alexander Hamilton

1794 - Tully, No. 3

The instrument by which it [government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!

Reference: Alexander Hamilton: American, Brookhiser (119); original Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Syrett et al., eds., vol. 17 (160)

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 62

No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.

Reference: The Federalist

John Jay

Federalist No. 4

Wisely, therefore, do they consider union and a good national government as necessary to put and keep them in such a situation as, instead of inviting war, will tend to repress and discourage it. That situation consists in the best possible state of defense, and necessarily depends on the government, the arms, and the resources of the country.

Reference: John Jay, Federalist No. 4.

Thomas Jefferson

1786 - letter to Maria Cosway

If our country, when pressed with wrongs at the point of the bayonet, had been governed by its heads instead of its hearts, where should we have been now? Hanging on a gallows as high as Haman's.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 5:444.

Thomas Jefferson

1787 - letter to Abigail Adams

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (889-890)

Thomas Jefferson

1788 - letter to E. Carrington

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 7 (37)

Thomas Jefferson

1796 - letter to John Adams

This I hope will be the age of experiments in government, and that their basis will be founded in principles of honesty, not of mere force.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Ford Edition), Paul Leicester Ford, ed., 7:56.

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - First Inaugural Address

 [A] wise and frugal government...shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (494)

Thomas Jefferson

1809 - letter to The Republican Citizens of Washington County, Maryland

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 16 (359)

Thomas Jefferson

1810 - letter to Thaddeus Kosciusko

The freedom and happiness of man...[are] the sole objects of all legitimate government.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 12:369.

Thomas Jefferson

1813 - letter to John Adams

The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. And indeed it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the most - for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government?

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Lemay, ed., 1306.

Thomas Jefferson

1813 - letter to John Adams

For I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Lemay, ed., 1305.

James Madison

1787 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

The great desideratum in Government is, so to modify the sovereignty as that it may be sufficiently neutral between different parts of the Society to controul one part from invading the rights of another, and at the same time sufficiently controuled itself, from setting up an interest adverse to that of the entire Society.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (152)

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 10

Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.

Reference: Madison, Federalist papers # 10, p. 1

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 10

The diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 10 (78)

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 49

 [I]t is the reason alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government.

Reference: Madison, Federalist 49

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 37

Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which are among the chief blessings of civil society.

Reference: The Federalist

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 49

It may be considered as an objection inherent in the principle, that as every appeal to the people would carry an implication of some defect in the government, frequent appeals would in great measure deprive the government of that veneration which time bestows on every thing, and without which perhaps the wisest and freest governments would not possess the requisite stability.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 49.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 51

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 51.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 37

Energy in government is essential to that security against external and internal danger and to that prompt and salutary execution of the laws which enter into the very definition of good government. Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which are among the chief blessings of civil society.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 37.

James Madison

1829 - speech in the Virginia constitutional convention

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

Reference: resp. quoted

James Madison

1833 - to an unidentified correspondent

It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.

Reference: Advice to My Country, Mattern ed. (54); original Madison Papers in the Library of Congress

James Monroe

1788 - speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention

How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.

Reference: The Debates of the Several State..., Elliot, vol. 3 (308)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (6)

Thomas Paine

1778 - The American Crisis, No. 5

The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of liberty but not the principle, for at the time they were determined not to be slaves themselves, they employed their power to enslave the rest of mankind.

Reference: Paine Writings, Foner, 169.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

How much more do they deserve our reverence and praise, whose lives are devoted to the formation of institutions, which, when they and their children are mingled in the common dust, may continue to cherish the principles and the practice of liberty in perpetual freshness and vigour.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 189.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the objects of the government; secondly, a knowledge of the means, by which those objects can be best attained.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 206

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

Men, to act with vigour and effect, must have time to mature measures, and judgment and experience, as to the best method of applying them. They must not be hurried on to their conclusions by the passions, or the fears of the multitude. They must deliberate, as well as resolve.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 224.

George Washington

1776 - letter to John Augustine Washington

To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must be bad.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (69)

James Wilson

The pyramid of government-and a republican government may well receive that beautiful and solid form-should be raised to a dignified altitude: but its foundations must, of consequence, be broad, and strong, and deep. The authority, the interests, and the affections of the people at large are the only foundation, on which a superstructure proposed to be at once durable and magnificent, can be rationally erected.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed., 403.

Founders Quote Database - History

John Adams

1798 - letter to the young men of the Philadelphia

Without wishing to damp the ardor of curiosity or influence the freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a prediction that, after the most industrious and impartial researchers, the longest liver of you all will find no principles, institutions or systems of education more fit in general to be transmitted to your posterity than those you have received from your ancestors.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 9 (188)

Benjamin Franklin

Emblematical Representations

History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy... These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people oppressed; whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connections, by which the whole state is weakened.

Reference: The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks, ed., 457.

Benjamin Franklin

1749 - Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania

History will also give Occasion to expatiate on the Advantage of Civil Orders and Constitutions, how Men and their Properties are protected by joining in Societies and establishing Government; their Industry encouraged and rewarded, Arts invented, and Life made more comfortable: The Advantages of Liberty, Mischiefs of Licentiousness, Benefits arising from good Laws and a due Execution of Justice. Thus may the first Principles of sound Politicks be fix'd in the Minds of Youth.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 337.

Thomas Jefferson

1781 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14

History by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (274)

Thomas Jefferson

1817 - letter to John Adams

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.

Reference: Thomas Jefferson papers at the Library of Congress

Noah Webster

1788 - On the Education of Youth in America

Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (265)

Founders Quote Database - House of Representatives

Benjamin Franklin

1785 - letter to George Whatley

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.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 1108.

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 55

In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. ... Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

Reference: The Federalist

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 57

Such will be the relation between the House of Representatives and their constituents. Duty gratitude, interest, ambition itself, are the cords by which they will be bound to fidelity and sympathy with the great mass of the people.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 57 (353)

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 57

If it be asked what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 57.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 57

The house of representatives...can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 57

Founders Quote Database - Human Nature

John Adams

1775 - the Novanglus

Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable passions, are the "latent spark"... If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?

Reference: Tracts on the American Revolution, Merrill Jensen, ed., (300)

Benjamin Franklin

1771 - Autobiography

In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will now and then peek out and show itself.

Reference: Autobiograhpy, Franklin (158-60) [Sheehan (3:3)]

Alexander Hamilton

1775 - The Farmer Refuted

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

Reference: Hamilton Papers, vol. 1 (156) [Sheehan (1:5)]

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

As riches increase and accumulate in few hands, as luxury prevails in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard. This is the real disposition of human nature; it is what neither the honorable member nor myself can correct. It is a common misfortunate that awaits our State constitution, as well as all others.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 26.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech at the New York Ratifying Convention

There are certain social principles in human nature, from which we may draw the most solid conclusions with respect to the conduct of individuals and of communities. We love our families more than our neighbors; we love our neighbors more than our countrymen in general. The human affections, like solar heat, lose their intensity as they depart from the centre... On these principles, the attachment of the individual will be first and for ever secured by the State governments. They will be a mutual protection and support.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 70.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 34

To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 34 (208)

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 55

Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be, that there is not sufficient virture among men for self-government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.

Reference: The Federalist

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 10

The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 10

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 51

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 51

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 55

As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust: So there are other qualities in human nature, which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us, faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self-government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 55.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 52

In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 52.

George Washington

1783 - The Newburgh Address

And you will, by the dignity of your Conduct, afford occasion for Posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to Mankind, had this day been wanting, the World had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (221)

George Washington

1786 - letter to John Jay

We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (334)

Founders Quote Database - Immigration

Benjamin Franklin

1784 - Those Who Would Remove to America

Strangers are welcome because there is room enough for them all, and therefore the old Inhabitants are not jealous of them; the Laws protect them sufficiently so that they have no need of the Patronage of great Men; and every one will enjoy securely the Profits of his Industry. But if he does not bring a Fortune with him, he must work and be industrious to live.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 977.

Benjamin Franklin

1784 - letter to William Straham

 [E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land, becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and a share in the Government of the Country.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 1102.

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - letter to Hugh White

Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 10 (258)

James Madison

1798 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

The Alien bill proposed in the Senate is a monster that must forever disgrace its parents.

Reference: James Madison, Letters and Other Writings, Fendall, ed., vol. 2 (142)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.

Reference: Paine Writings, Foner, 23.

George Washington

1783 - Address to the Members of the Volunteer Association of Ireland

The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.

Reference: George Washington, Address to the Members of the Volunteer Association of Ireland, December 2, 1783.

George Washington

1785 - letter to David Humphreys

 [L]et the poor the needy and oppressed of the Earth, and those who want Land, resort to the fertile plains of our western country, the second land of Promise, and there dwell in peace, fulfilling the first and great commandment.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (301)

George Washington

1794 - letter to John Adams

[T]he policy or advantage of [immigration] taking place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) may be much questioned; for, by so doing, they retain the Language, habits and principles (good or bad) which they bring with them. Whereas by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures and laws: in a word, soon become one people.

Reference: The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, Fitzpatrick, Ed., vol. 34 (American Memory Co

Founders Quote Database - International Relations

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 11

The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 11

Let the thirteen States, bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one great American system, superior to the control of all transatlantic force or influence, and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world!

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 15

There is nothing absurd or impracticable in the idea of a league or alliance between independent nations for certain defined purposes precisely stated in a treaty regulating all the details of time, place, circumstance, and quantity; leaving nothing to future discretion; and depending for its execution on the good faith of the parties.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 25

War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverance, by time, and by practice.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 34

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1790 - Report on Public Credit

States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.

Reference: The Reports of Alexander Hamilton, Cooke, ed. (3)

Alexander Hamilton

1793 - Pacificus, No. 6

Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence.

Reference: Alexander Hamilton: American, Brookhiser (116); original Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Syrett et al., eds., vol. 15 (106)

Thomas Jefferson

1797 - letter to Elbridge Gerry

I have been happy... in believing that... whatever follies we may be led into as to foreign nations, we shall never give up our Union, the last anchor of our hope, and that alone which is to prevent this heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 9 (384)

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - First Inaugural Address

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.

Reference: Inauguration Addresses of the Presidents

Thomas Jefferson

1805 - Second Inaugural Address

We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (518)

James Madison

1813 - Second Inaugural Address

 [T]o exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones; to foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of others, too proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves and too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to hold the union of the States on the basis of their peace and happiness; to support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and essential to the success of the general... as far as sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource which can not fail me.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States.

James Madison

1816 - letter to the Dey of Algiers

It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.

Reference: Madison , III, page 17

Thomas Paine

1776 - The American Crisis, No. 1

It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (97)

George Washington

1775 - letter to Partick Henry

My ardent desire is, and my aim has been...to comply strictly with all our engagements foreign and domestic; but to keep the U States free from political connections with every other Country. To see that they may be independent of all, and under the influence of none. In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home.

Reference: The Writings of George Washington, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 34 (335)

George Washington

1783 - Circular letter to the States

[H]onesty will be found on every experiment, to be the best and only true policy; let us then as a Nation be just.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (244)

George Washington

1795 - letter to Gouverneur Morris

My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration of the government, to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth. To share in the broils of none. To fulfil our own engagements. To supply the wants, and be carriers for them all: Being thoroughly convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 54.

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 71.

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (524)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent Alliances, with any portion of the foreign world.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (525)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (522)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

Reference: Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. (71)

George Washington

1796 - letter to Alexander Hamilton

But if we are to be told by a foreign Power ... what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little.

Reference: The Writings of George Washington, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 35 (40)

Founders Quote Database - Judiciary

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society depend so much upon an upright and skillful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, and both should be checks upon that.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed. (198)

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

 [J]udges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed. (198)

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

 [J]udges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 198.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 78

The standard of good behavior for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy is certainly one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice of government.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 78.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 78

And it proves, in the last place, that liberty can have nothing to fear from the judiciary alone, but would have everything to fear from its union with either of the other departments.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 78.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 81

In the first place, there is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution, or which gives them any greater latitude in this respect than may be claimed by the courts of every State.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 81.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 78

The Judiciary...has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society, and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither force nor will.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 78 (465)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 81

 [T]here is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 81 (482)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 78

Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 78

... [The Judicial Branch] may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.

Reference: The Federalist

Thomas Jefferson

commenting on judges' apparel

Jefferson was against any needless official apparel, but if the gown was to carry, he said: "For Heaven's sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum.

Reference: respec. Quoted

Thomas Jefferson

1804 - letter to Abigail Adams

 [T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their, own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (265-66); original Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas

Thomas Jefferson

1819 - letter to Judge Spencer Roane

The Constitution...is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (189); original Memoir, Corresspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas J

Thomas Jefferson

1820 - letter to Thomas Ritchie

The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special government to a general and supreme one alone.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1446)

Thomas Jefferson

1820 - letter to Thomas Ritchie

A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1446)

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - letter to Charles Hammond

It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression...that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal Judiciary;...working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (260-61); original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 15

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - letter to Charles Hammond

The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constituion of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one.

Reference: respec quoted

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - letter to Judge Spencer Roane

The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is ingulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them.

Reference: respec. Quot

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to Monsieur A. Coray

At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.

Reference: respec. Quoted

Thomas Jefferson

1825 - letter to Edward Livingston

One single object...[will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 16 (113)

James Madison

1788 - letter to John Brown

 [R]efusing or not refusing to execute a law to stamp it with its final character...makes the Judiciary department paramount in fact to the Legislature, which was never intended and can never be proper.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (259); original Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Madison, vol. 1 (194)

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

The truth is, that, even with the most secure tenure of office, during good behavior, the danger is not, that the judges will be too firm in resisting public opinion, and in defence of private rights or public liberties; but, that they will be ready to yield themselves to the passions, and politics, and prejudices of the day.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 598.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

Without justice being freely, fully, and impartially administered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected. And if these, or either of them, are regulated by no certain laws, and are subject to no certain principles, and are held by no certain tenure, and are redressed, when violated, by no certain remedies, society fails of all its value; and men may as well return to a state of savage and barbarous independence.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 175.

Founders Quote Database - Justice

John Adams

1777 - letter to Elbridge Gerry

Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.

Reference: The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Thompson, ed. (cover page)

Thomas Jefferson

1790 - Opinion on Debts Due to Soldiers

It is not honorable to take mere legal advantage, when it happens to be contrary to justice.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 3 (25)

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - First Inaugural Address

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - First Inaugural Address

 [I]t is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government.... Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political....

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (494)

Thomas Jefferson

1816 - Note in Destutt de Tracy

The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all citizens.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 14 (465)

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 51

Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 51.

James Madison

1789 - in response to Washington's first Inaugural address

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.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (463)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a People always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (522)

Founders Quote Database - Last Words

John Adams

1826 - after waking momentarily

Thomas Jefferson still lives.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 1 (636)

Benjamin Franklin

1790 - after his daughter asked him to move

A dying man can do nothing easy.

Reference: The Life of Franklin, Sparks, vol. 1 (531)

Nathan Hale

1776 - before being hanged by the British

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (476); original General William Hull, Campbell (37-38)

Alexander Hamilton

1804 - speaking to his grieving wife

Remember, my Eliza, you are a Christian.

Reference: Facts and Documments..., Editor of the Evening Post, ed. (23); original letter from David Hosack, August 17, 1804

Thomas Jefferson

1826 - evening July 3; Jefferson died the next morning

Is it the Fourth?

Reference: Thomas Jefferson: A Life, Randal (594)

James Madison

1836 - responding to his niece asking what was wrong

Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear.

Reference: James Madison: Commander in Chief, Brandt, vol. 6 (520)

George Washington

1799 - Last Words

Tis well.

Reference: The First of Men, Ferling (507)

Founders Quote Database - Law

John Adams

1775 - Novanglus No. 7

They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men.

Reference: Papers of John Adams, Taylor, ed., vol. 2 (314)

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

As good government is an empire of laws, how shall your laws be made? In a large society, inhabiting an extensive country, it is impossible that the whole should assemble to make laws. The first necessary step, then, is to depute power from the many to a few of the most wise and good.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 194.

Fisher Ames

1789 - letter to George Richard Minot

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.

Reference: Works of Fisher Ames, W. B. Allen, ed., vol. 1 (678)

Candidus

1772 - in the Boston Gazette

 [I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (259); original Boston Gazette (January 20, 1772)

Benjamin Franklin

1774 - Emblematical Representations

The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy.

Reference: The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Sparks, ed. (457)

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 25

Wise politicians will be cautious about fettering the government with restrictions that cannot be observed, because they know that every break of the fundamental laws, though dictated by necessity, impairs that sacred reverence which ought to be maintained in the breast of rulers towards the constitution of a country.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 25 (167)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 33

The propriety of a law, in a constitutional light, must always be deteremined by the nature of the powers upon which it is founded.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 62

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 62

Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?

Reference: The Federalist

Thomas Jefferson

1782 - Notes on the state of Virginia

We lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right; that, without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conscience.

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to William Johnson

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.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 15 (450)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain...let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING.

Benjamin Rush

1788 - letter to David Ramsay

 [W]here there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.

Reference: Letters of Benjamin Rush, Butterfield, ed., vol. 1 (454)

James Wilson

Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other. The divine law, as discovered by reason and the moral sense, forms an essential part of both.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed., 125.

James Wilson

1790 - Of the Study of the Law in the United States

To prevent crimes, is the noblest end and aim of criminal jurisprudence. To punish them, is one of the means necessary for the accomplishment of this noble end and aim.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed., vol. 1 (441-43) [Sheehan (5:14)]

James Wilson

1790 - Of the Study of the Law in the United States

Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, Andrews, ed., vol. 1 (7)

Founders Quote Database - Laws of Nature

The Declaration of Independence 1776

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Law of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Reference: Jefferson, The Decleration of Independence

The Essex Result 1778

We have duties, for the discharge of which we are accountable to our Creator and benefactor, which no human power can cancel. What those duties are, is determinable by right reason, which may be, and is called, a well informed conscience. What this conscience dictates as our duty, is so; and that power which assumes a control over it, is an usurper; for no power can be pleaded to justify the control, as any consent in this case is void.

Reference: Theophilus Parsons, The Essex Result, May 12, 1778

Samuel Adams

1794 - letter to the Legislature of Massachusetts

In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (224); original The Writings of Samuel Adams, Cushing, ed., vol.4(356)

Alexander Hamilton

1775 - The Farmer Refuted

To grant that there is a supreme intelligence who rules the world and has established laws to regulate the actions of his creatures; and still to assert that man, in a state of nature, may be considered as perfectly free from all restraints of law and government, appears to a common understanding altogether irreconcilable. Good and wise men, in all ages, have embraced a very dissimilar theory. They have supposed that the deity, from the relations we stand in to himself and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever. This is what is called the law of nature....Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind.

Thomas Jefferson

1774 - Rights of British America

That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (121)

George Washington

1789 - First Inaugural Address

The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (462)

James Wilson

1804 - Of the Law of Nature

The moral precepts delivered in the sacred oracles form a part of the law of nature, are of the same origin and of the same obligation, operating universally and perpetually.

Reference: The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, Wilson, ed., vol. 1 (137-138)

James Wilson

1804 - of the Law of Nature

The law of nature and the law of revelation are both Divine: they flow, though in different channels, from the same adorable source. It is indeed preposterous to separate them from each other.

Reference: The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, Wilson, ed., vol. 1 (120)

Founders Quote Database - Liberty

Inscription on the Liberty Bell, from Leviticus 25:10

Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof - Lev. XXV, v. X

Reference: TK

John Adams

1765 - A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law

Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.

Reference: The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Thompson, ed. (28)

John Adams

1775 - letter to Abigail Adams

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

Reference: Adam's Family Correspondence, Butterfiled, ed. vol. 1 (241)

John Adams

1786 - letter to Count Sarsfield

It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the experiment, and preserve our equality as long as we can. A better system of education for the common people might preserve them long from such artificial inequalities as are prejudicial to society, by confounding the natural distinctions of right and wrong, virtue and vice.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 264.

John Adams

1797 - Inaugural Address

In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States.

Fisher Ames

1801 - Essay on Equality

Liberty is not to be enjoyed, indeed it cannot exist, without the habits of just subordination; it consists, not so much in removing all restraint from the orderly, as in imposing it on the violent.

Reference: Works of Fisher Ames, W. B. Allen, ed., vol. 1 (256)

Oliver Ellsworth

1787 - A Landholder, No. III

Liberty is a word which, according as it is used, comprehends the most good and the most evil of any in the world. Justly understood it is sacred next to those which we appropriate in divine adoration; but in the mouths of some it means anything, which enervate a necessary government; excite a jealousy of the rulers who are our own choice, and keep society in confusion for want of a power sufficiently concentered to promote good.

Reference: Essays on the Constitution of the United States, Ford, ed. (146); original The Connecticut Courant [Sheehan (4:4)]

Benjamin Franklin

1759 - Historical Review of Pennsylvania

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Reference: The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Sparks, ed., vol. 3 (107)

Benjamin Franklin

1777 - letter to Samuel Cooper

 [I]t is a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own.

Reference: The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Bigelow, ed., vol. 7 (215)

Benjamin Franklin

1783 - letter to Benjamin Vaughn

Where liberty dwells, there is my country.

Reference: Respectfully Quoted, p. 201

Alexander Hamilton

1774 - A Full Vindication of the Measures of the Congress, &c.

No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.

Reference: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Syrett, ed., vol. 1 (47)

Alexander Hamilton

1790 - Report on a National Bank

 [H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed. (4)

Patrick Henry

1788 - Speech to the Virginia Convention

Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earlthy blessings - give us that precious jewel, and you may take every things else! Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.

Reference: respe. Quot

Thomas Jefferson

1774 - Summary View of the Rights of British America

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (122)

Thomas Jefferson

1775 - Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking up Arms

Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.

Reference: Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Ford et al., ed., vol. 2 (154)

Thomas Jefferson

1787 - letter to William Stephens Smith

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (911)

Thomas Jefferson

1787 - letter to William Stephens Smith

What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 6:373.

Thomas Jefferson

1791 - letter to Archibald Stewart

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

Reference: respec. Quote

Thomas Jefferson

1820 - letter to Richard Rush

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 15:283.

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - letter to John Adams

I will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance.

Reference: Thomas Jefferson: The Apostle of Americanism, Chinard (517); original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipsco

John Madison

1792 - National Gazette Essay

In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example . . . of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world, may, with an honest praise, be pronounced the most triumphant epoch of its history, and the most consoling presage of its happiness.

Reference: Advice to My Country, Mattern ed. (20); original Papers of John Madison, vol. 14 (191)

Thomas Paine

1791 - Dissertation on First Principles of Government

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

Reference: resp. quoted

George Washington

1783 - letter to the Reformed German Congregation of New York City

The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field -- the object is attained -- and it now remains to be my earnest wish & prayer, that the Citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (271)

George Washington

1788 - letter to James Madison

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (386)

George Washington

1790 - letter to the people of South Carolina

The value of liberty was thus enhanced in our estimation by the difficulty of its attainment, and the worth of characters appreciated by the trial of adversity.

Reference: Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. (16); original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 31 (67)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

James Wilson

Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed., 72.

Founders Quote Database - Marriage

Benjamin Franklin

1730 - Rules and Maxims for Promoting Matrimonial Happiness

The happy State of Matrimony is, undoubtedly, the surest and most lasting Foundation of Comfort and Love; the Source of all that endearing Tenderness and Affection which arises from Relation and Affinity; the grand Point of Property; the Cause of all good Order in the World, and what alone preserves it from the utmost Confusion; and, to sum up all, the Appointment of infinite Wisdom for these great and good Purposes.

Reference: Franklin: Collected Works, Lemay, ed. (152)

Benjamin Franklin

1738 - Poor Richard's Almanack

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, ed., Library of America (1208)

Thomas Jefferson

1798 - letter to Mary Jefferson Eppes

Harmony in the married state is the very first object to be aimed at.

George Washington

1785 - letter to Burwell Bassett

I have always considered marriage as the most interesting event of one's life, the foundation of happiness or misery.

Reference: The Writings of George Washington, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 28 (online at American Memory Collection)

George Washington

1786 - letter to the Marquis de la Rourie

More permanent and genuine happiness is to be found in the sequestered walks of connubial life than in the giddy rounds of promiscuous pleasure.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (300); original The Writings of George Washington, Sparks, ed., vol. 9 (190)

Samuel Williams

1794 - The Natural and Civil History of Vermont

It is not necessary to enumerate the many advantages, that arise from this custom of early marriages. They comprehend all the society can receive from this source; from the preservation, and increase of the human race. Every thing useful and beneficial to man, seems to be connected with obedience to the laws of his nature, the inclinations, the duties, and the happiness of individuals, resolve themselves into customs and habits, favourable, in the highest degree, to society. In no case is this more apparent, than in the customs of nations respecting marriage.

Reference: American Political Writing during the Founding Era: 1760-1805, Hyneman and Lutz, ed., vol. 2 (952)

James Wilson

1791 - Lectures on Law

When divorces can be summoned to the aid of levity, of vanity, or of avarice, a state of marriage frequently becomes a state of war or strategem.

Reference: Vindicating the Founders, West (100); original Works, Wilson,

Founders Quote Database - National Defense

John Adams

1815 - letter to James Lloyd

National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 10 (111)

Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 26

The idea of restraining the legislative authority in the means of providing for the national defense is one of those refinements which owe their origin to a zeal for liberty more ardent than enlightened.

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 23

The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which the care of it is committed.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 23 (153)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 34

To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude that the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the human breast with much more powerful sway than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace; and that to model our political systems upon speculations of lasting tranquillity would be to calculate on the weaker springs of human character.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 34 (208)

John Jay

Federalist No. 4

But the safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of war.

Reference: John Jay, Federalist No. 4.

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to James Monroe

Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace.

Reference: Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, Foley (685); orignal The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford, ed., vol. 5 (198)

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 14

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.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 41.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 41

How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?

Reference: The Federalist

James Madison

1792 - essay in the National Gazette

A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts.

Reference: The Complete Madison, Padover (349)

James Madison

1813 - Second Inaugural Address

To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword was scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the President of the United States.

Thomas Paine

1776 - The American Crisis, No. 1

Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?

Reference: Paine, Collected Writings, Library of America, p. 97

Thomas Paine

1776 - The American Crisis, No. 1

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

Reference: Paine, Collected Writings, Library of America, p. 95

Thomas Paine

1777 - The Crisis, no. 4

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.

Reference: resp. quoted

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

It should therefore be difficult in a republic to declare war; but not to make peace.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 411.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

It is important also to consider, that the surest means of avoiding war is to be prepared for it in peace.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 415.

George Washington

1783 - letter to Alexander Hamilton

The Army (considering the irritable state it is in, its suffering and composition) is a dangerous instrument to play with.

Reference: The Farewell Address: Washington's Forgotten Legacy, Spalding (112); original The Writings of George Washington, Fitzpatrick, ed

George Washington

1790 - First Annual Message

To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (468)

George Washington

1793 - Fifth Annual Message

There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (488)

George Washington

1793 - fifth annual address to Congress

If we desire to insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.

Reference: resp. quot

Founders Quote Database - Opinion

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - First Inaugural Address

 [L]et them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (493)

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - First Inaugural Address

Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.

Thomas Jefferson

1803 - letter to John Randolph

Experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can; when we cannot do all we would wish.

Thomas Jefferson

1805 - Second Inaugural Address

When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - letter to M. Correa

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

Reference: Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, Foley (662); original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, ed., vol. 6 (405)

James Madison

1786 - letter to James Monroe

There is no maxim in my opinion which is more liable to be misapplied, and which therefore needs elucidation than the current one that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.... In fact it is only reestablishing under another name and a more specious form, force as the measure of right....

Reference: Papers of James Madison, Rutland, et. al. eds., vol. 9 (141) [Sheehan (11:#7)]

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 10

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other.

James Madison

1790 - letter to Benjamin Rush

Nothing is so contagious as opinion, especially on questions which, being susceptible of very different glosses, beget in the mind a distrust of itself.

Reference: Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Fendall, ed., vol. 1 (161)

James Madison

1791 - Public Opinion

Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.

Reference: Papers of James Madison, Rutland, et. al. eds., vol. 14 (170) [Sheehan (11:11)]

Thomas Paine

1792 - Rights of Man

A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (543)

George Washington

1796 - letter to Edward Carrington

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.

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

Founders Quote Database - Patriotism

John Adams

1808 - letter to Benjamin Rush

Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (25)

Thomas Jefferson

1825 - letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith

Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1499)

James Madison

1824 - letter to James Monroe

The eyes of the world being thus on our Country, it is put the more on its good behavior, and under the greater obligation also, to do justice to the Tree of Liberty by an exhibition of the fine fruits we gather from it.

Reference: Advice to My Country, Mattern ed. (13-14); original Monroe Papers in the Library of Congress

Benjamin Rush

1773 - letter to His Fellow Contrymen: On Patriotism

Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families.

Reference: Letters of Benjamin Rush, Butterfield, ed., vol. 1 (83)

Joseph Warren

1775 - Boston Massacre Oration

Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves.

Reference: Life and Times of Joseph Warren, Frothingham (435)

George Washington

1776 - General Orders

Our own Country's Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions - The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny mediated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.

Reference: Washington, General Orders, July 2, 1776.

George Washington

1776 - General Orders

The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty - that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.

Reference: Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. (86)

George Washington

1783 - upon fumbling for his glasses before delivering the Newburgh Address

Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.

Reference: George Washington in the American Revolution, Flexner (507)

George Washington

1789 - letter to the Legislature of Pennsylvania

It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.

Reference: Maxims of George Washington, Schroeder, ed. (37)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States.

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (526)

Founders Quote Database - Political Leaders

Samuel Adams

1780 - letter to Elbridge Gerry

If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation.

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (109); original Life of Elbridge Gerry, Austin, (361-62)

Alexander Hamilton

The Federalist, no 71

When occasions present themselves, in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection.

Reference: resp. quot

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 21

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

Reference: The Federalist

Thomas Jefferson

1775 - A Summary View of the Rights of British America

It behooves you, therefore, to think and act for yourself and your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (121)

Thomas Jefferson

1796 - letter to John Adams

I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants...I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.

Thomas Jefferson

1804 - letter to Abigail Adams

With those who wish to think amiss of me, I have learned to be perfectly indifferent; but where I know a mind to be ingenuous, and to need only truth to set it to rights, I cannot be passive.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 11:49.

Thomas Jefferson

1808 - letter to Richard M. Johnson

I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 12 (9)

Thomas Jefferson

1808 - letter to Richard M. Johnson

It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 12:9).

Thomas Jefferson

1813 - letter to John Melish

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens....There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends & books.

Thomas Jefferson

1817 - letter to John Adams

Men of energy of character must have enemies; because there are two sides to every question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it with effect, those who take the other will of course be hostile in proportion as they feel that effect.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 15:109.

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 10,

Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 57

The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 57.

James Madison (likely)

1788 - Federalist No. 63

As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought in all governments, and actually will in all free governments ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so there are particular moments in public affairs, when the people stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the blow mediated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice and truth, can regain their authority over the public mind?

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 63.

George Mason

1788 - speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention

Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents, as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people, from whence he was taken, where he must participate in their burdens.

Reference: The Papers of George Mason, Rutland, ed., vol. 3 (1093) [Sheehan (5:5)]

George Washington

1790 - letter to Catherine MacAuly Graham

All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (537)

Founders Quote Database - Politics and Parties

John Adams

1780 - letter to Abigail Adams

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

Reference: Americanism, Gebhardt (1-2); original Letters, C.F. Adams, ed. vol. 2 (68)

John Adams

1797 - Inaugural Address

We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, GPO (9)

John Adams

1826 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be... Our American Chivalry is the worst in the world. It has no Laws, no bounds, no definitions; it seems to be all a Caprice.

Reference: The Adams-Jefferson Correspondence, Lester Cappon, ed.,

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 1

In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 1.

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - letter to John Dickinson

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

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford Edition, vol. 8 (76)

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - letter to John Dickinson

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

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford Edition, 8:76

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - letter to Thomas McKean

To restore... harmony,... to render us again one people acting as one nation should be the object of every man really a patriot.

Reference: 63 The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford Edition, 8:78

Thomas Jefferson

1805 - letter to George Logan

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.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 11:71

Thomas Jefferson

1811 - letter to William Duane

If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, everyone pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, 13:29

James Madison

Federalist No. 45

We have heard of the impious doctrine in the old world, that the people were made for kings, not kings for the people. Is the same doctrine to be revived in the new, in another shape - that the solid happiness of the people is to be sacrificed to the views of political institutions of a different form? It is too early for politicians to presume on our forgetting that the public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is the supreme object to be pursued; and that no form of government whatever has any other value than as it may be fitted for the attainment of this object.

Reference: Federalist No. 45.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 45

It is too early for politicians to presume on our forgetting that the public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is the supreme object to be pursued; and that no form of government whatever has any other value than as it may be fitted for the attainment of this object.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 45

George Washington

1796 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

[N]or did I believe until lately, that it was within the bonds of probability; hardly within those of possibility, that, while I was using my utmost exertions to establish a national character of our own, independent, as far as our obligations, and justice would permit, of every nation of the earth; and wished, by steering a steady course, to preserve this Country from the horrors of a desolating war, that I should be accused of being the enemy of one Nation, and subject to the influence of another; and to prove it, that every act of my administration would be tortured, and the grossest, and most insidious mis-representations of them be made (by giving one side only of a subject, and that too in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero; a notorious defaulter; or even to a common pick-pocket).

Reference: The Papers of George Washington, Library of Congress, American Memory Collection

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party generally. . . . A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (519-20)

Founders Quote Database - Poverty

Benjamin Franklin

1749 - Poor Richards Almanack

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

Reference: Poor Richard: The Almanacks, for the Years, 1733-1758, Intro by Van Wyck Brooks (165)

Benjamin Franklin

1753 - letter to Collinson

Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. St. Monday and St. Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.

Reference: Vindicating the Founders, West, 145.

Benjamin Franklin

1766 - On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

Reference: Vindicating the Founders, West, 135.

Benjamin Franklin

1771 - Autobiography

This gave me occasion to observe, that when Men are employ'd they are best contented. For on the Days they work'd they were good-natur'd and chearful; and with the consciousness of having done a good Days work they spent the Evenings jollily; but on the idle Days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their Pork, the Bread, and in continual ill-humour.

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, ed., Library of America (1447)

Thomas Jefferson

1781 - Notes on Virginia, Query 19

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (290-1)

Thomas Jefferson

1787 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIX,

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to Michael Megear

It is a duty certainly to give our sparings to those who want; but to see also that they are faithfully distributed, and duly apportioned to the respective wants of those receivers. And why give through agents whom we know not, to persons whom we know not, and in countries from which we get no account, where we can do it at short hand, to objects under our eye, through agents we know, and to supply wants we see?

Reference: Jeffersonain Cyclopedia, Foley, ed. (134); original The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, ed., vol. 7 (286)

James Madison

1794 - speech in the House of Representatives

 [T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.

Reference: Elliot's Debates,

Thomas Paine

1776 - The American Crisis, No. 1

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

Reference: Paine, Collected Writings, Library of America p.91

George Washington

1783 - letter to the Officers of the Army

Can you then consent to be the only sufferers by this revolution, and retiring from the field, grow old in poverty, wretchedness and contempt? Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of dependency, and owe the miserable remnant of that life to charity, which has hitherto been spent in honor? If you can--GO--and carry with you the jest of tories and scorn of whigs--the ridicule, and what is worse, the pity of the world. Go, starve, and be forgotten!

Reference: Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Ford, et. al., eds., vol. 24 (296)

Founders Quote Database - Power

Declaration of Independence

1776

Governments are instituted among, Men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Alexander Hamilton

1775 - The Farmer Refuted

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

Reference: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Syrett, ed., vol. 1 (126)

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 15

Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 31

A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects commmitted to its care, and to the complete execution of the trusts for which it is responsible, free from every other control but a regard to the public good and to the sense of the people.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

The great desiderata are a free representation and mutual checks. When these are obtained, all our apprehensions of the extent of powers are unjust and imaginary.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 60.

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 63

Responsibility, in order to be reasonable, must be limited to objects within the power of the responsible party, and in order to be effectual, must relate to operations of that power, of which a ready and proper judgment can be formed by the constituents.

Reference: The Federalist

James Madison

1787 - speech at the Constitutional Convention

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

Reference: Advice to My Country, Mattern ed. (79); original The Papers of John Madison, Congressional Series, vol. 10 (98)

James Madison

1788 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (421)

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 48

It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it. After discriminating, therefore, in theory, the several classes of power, as they may in their nature be legislative, executive, or judiciary, the next and most difficult task is to provide some practical security for each, against the invasion of the others.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 48

James Madison

1792 - esssay in the National Gazette

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

George Washington

1753 - Circular to the States

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

George Washington

1790 - letter to David Stuart

I can truly say I had rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two about me, than to be attended at the Seat of Government by the Officers of State and the Representatives of every Power in Europe.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 127.

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (521)

Founders Quote Database - Press

James Madison

1799 - Report on the Resolutions

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 opression.

Reference: resp. quoted

Founders Quote Database - Property

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws. He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his share to the expense of this protection; and to give his personal service, or an equivalent, when necessary. But no part of the property of any individual can, with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his own consent, or that of the representative body of the people. In fine, the people of this commonwealth are not controllable by any other laws than those to which their constitutional representative body have given their consent.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 225.

John Adams

1787 - A Defense of the American Constitutions

The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If `Thou shalt not covet' and `Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 6 (8-9); The Founders Constitution

Benjamin Franklin

1783 - letter to Robert Morris

All the property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 1082.

Alexander Hamilton

1792 - Vindication of the Funding System

Wherever indeed a right of property is infringed for the general good, if the nature of the case admits of compensation, it ought to be made; but if compensation be impracticable, that impracticability ought to be an obstacle to a clearly essential reform.

Reference: Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton, Frisch, 334.

Thomas Jefferson

1788 - Jefferson to Bancroft

He who is permitted by law to have no property of his own, can with difficulty conceive that property is founded in anything but force.

Reference: Vindicating the Fathers, p 26

James Madison

1792 - Essay on Property

Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (515)

James Otis

1761 - On the Writs of Assistance

One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle.

Reference: Privacy in Colonial New England, Flaherty (85-88)

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

And it is no less true, that personal security and private property rest entirely upon the wisdom, the stability, and the integrity of the courts of justice.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 581.

Founders Quote Database - Protecting

Thomas Jefferson

1816 - letter to Joseph Milligan

For example. If the system be established on basis of Income, and his just proportion on that scale has been already drawn from every one, to step into the field of Consumption, and tax special articles in that, as broadcloth or homespun, wine or whiskey, a coach or a wagon, is doubly taxing the same article. For that portion of Income with which these articles are purchased, having already paid its tax as Income, to pay another tax on the thing it purchased, is paying twice for the same thing; it is an aggrievance on the citizens who use these articles in exoneration of those who do not, contrary to the most sacred of the duties of a government, to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 14 (465)

Founders Quote Database - Public Service

Nathan Hale

1776 - remark to Captain William Hull, who had attempted to dissuade him from volunteering for a spy mission for General Washington

I am not influenced by the expectation of promotion or pecuniary reward. I wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary for the public good, become honorable by being necessary.

George Washington

1775 - letter to Benedict Arnold

Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.

George Washington

1788 - letter to James Madison

The consciousness of having discharged that duty which we owe to our country is superior to all other considerations.

George Washington

1789 - First Inaugural Address

I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love.

Founders Quote Database - Public Speaking

Benjamin Franklin

1735 - Poor Richard's Almanack

Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, ed., Library of America (1198)

Thomas Jefferson

1824 - letter to David Harding

I should consider the speeches of Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, as preeminent specimens of logic, taste and that sententious brevity which, using not a word to spare, leaves not a moment for inattention to the hearer. Amplification is the vice of modern oratory.

George Washington

1787 - Public Speaking

Speak seldom, but to important subjects, except such as particularly relate to your constituents, and, in the former case, make yourself perfectly master of the subject.

Founders Quote Database - Religion and Morality

John Adams

1776 - letter to Zabdiel Adams

Statesmen by dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, pg. 371.

John Adams

1798 - Address to the Military

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Reference: America's God and Country (10-11)

John Adams

1811 - letter in response to Rush letter above

 [R]eligion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 9 (636)

Samuel Adams

1778 - letter to John Trumbull

Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (320); original The Writings of Samuel Adams, Cushing, ed., vol. 4 (74)

Benjamin Franklin

to Thomas Paine

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

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (297); original The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Sparks, ed., vol. 10 (281-282)

Benjamin Franklin

1743 - Poor Richards Almanack

How many observe Christ's birth-day! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments.

Reference: Poor Richard: The Almanacks, for the Years, 1733-1758, Intro by Van Wyck Brooks (111)

John Jay

1784 - letter to Peter Augustus Jay

The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (163); original John Jay: The Winning of the Peace. Unpublished Papers 1780-1784, Morris, ed., vol. 3 (7

Thomas Jefferson

1785 - Westmoreland County Petition

Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts...in which all religions agree.

Reference: Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, Hutson, (84); original Westmoreland County, petition, November 2, 1785, to V

Gouverneur Morris

1791 - Notes on the Form of a Constitution for France

Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God.

Benjamin Rush

1783 - letter to John Armstrong

Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (153); original Letters of Benjamin Rush, Butterfield, ed., vol. 1 (294)

Benjamin Rush

1806 - On the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic

 [T]he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (153); original Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosohpical, Rush (8)

Benjamin Rush

1811 - letter to John Adams

In such a performance you may lay the foundation of national happiness only in religion, not by leaving it doubtful "whether morals can exist without it," but by asserting that without religion morals are the effects of causes as purely physical as pleasant breezes and fruitful seasons.

Reference: Americanism, Gebhardt (12); original Letters, Rush, Butterfield, ed., vol. 2 (1096-97)

George Washington

1778 - letter to Thomas Nelson

The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.

Reference: The Writings of George Washington, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 12 (343)

George Washington

1789 - First Inaugural Address

The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (462)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Of all the dispositions and habits which least to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indespensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pilliars of human happiness.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (521)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

[W]here is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths...?

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (521)

Founders Quote Database - Religious Liberty

Virginia Bill of Rights, Article 16 1776

 [R]eligion, or the duty which we owe to our creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and this is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.

Reference: The Founders Constitution, Website < https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/>; original The Papers of George Mason, 1725-1792,

Massachusetts Bill of Rights, Part the First 1780

It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religion profession of sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship....

Reference: Documents of American History, Commager, ed., vol. 1 (107)

John Adams

1765 - Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law

Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man's nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God... Let it be known that British liberties are not the grants of princes and parliaments.

Reference: The Most Nearly Perfect Solution, Guinness, 3-26; and John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty, Thompson, 54.

Thomas Jefferson

1782 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (285)

Thomas Jefferson

1802 - letter to a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, Connecticut

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 510.

Thomas Jefferson

1808 - letter to Samuel Miller

I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in any religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the States.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (25); original Memoir, Jefferson, vol. 4 (103-4)

Thomas Jefferson

1809 - letter to Samuel Miller

I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 1186.

James Madison

1774 - letter to William Bradford

That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages amoung some and to their eternal Infamy the Clergy can furnish their Quota of Imps for such business,

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (7)

James Madison

1774 - letter to William Bradford

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprize, every expanded prospect.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (9)

James Madison

1785 - Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments

It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (30)

James Madison

1789 - proposed amendment to the Constitution, given in a speech in the House of Representatives

The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (442)

James Madison

1792 - essay on Property

Conscience is the most sacred of all property.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (516)

James Madison

1820 - letter to Jacob de la Motta

Among the features peculiar to the political system of the United States, is the perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious sect.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, pg. 333

James Madison

1822 - letter to Edward Livingston

We are teaching the world the great truth that Governments do better without Kings & Nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson that Religion Flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (789)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.

Reference: Paine Writings, Foner, ed., 25.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape. The future experience of Christendom, and chiefly of the American states, must settle this problem, as yet new in the history of the world, abundant, as it has been, in experiments in the theory of government.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 700.

George Washington

1789 - letter to the General Committee of the United Baptist Churches in Virginia

I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 175.

George Washington

1789 - to the Annual meeting of Quakers

The liberty enjoyed by the people of these states of worshiping Almighty God agreebly to their conscience, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (533)

George Washington

1790 - letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (548) George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress

George Washington

1793 - letter to the Members of the New Church in Baltimore

We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 180.

John Witherspoon

1776 - The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men

There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.

Reference: The Selected Writings of John Witherspoon, Miller, 140-1.

Founders Quote Database - Republican Government

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

There is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; for the true idea of a republic is "an empire of laws, and not of men." That,as a republic is the best of governments, so that particular arrangement of the powers of society, or in other words, that form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the law, is the best of republics.

Reference: A Government of Laws, Sandoz, (cover page)

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

That, as a republic is the best of governments, so that particular arrangements of the powers of society, or, in other words, that form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the laws, is the best of republics.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 194.

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 9

The regular distribution of power into distinct departments; the introduction of legislative balances and checks; the institution of courts composed of judges holding their offices during good behavior; the representation of the people in the legislature by deputies of their own election... They are means, and powerful means, by which the excellences of republican govenrment may be retained and its imperfections lessened or avoided.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 71

The republican principle demands that the deliberate sense of the community should govern the conduct of those to whom they intrust the management of their affairs; but it does not require an unqualified complaisance to every sudden breeze of passion or to every transient impulse which the people may receive from the arts of men, who flatter their prejudices to betray their interests.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 71.

Thomas Jefferson

1790 - Letter to William Hunter

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

Reference: Bartlett's; check LOA edition

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - First Inaugural Address

Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (493)

Thomas Jefferson

1815 - letter to Francis C. Gray

Although a republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 14:270.

Thomas Jefferson

1815 - Letter to Francis C. Gray

 [A]lthough a republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 14 (270)

Thomas Jefferson

1816 - letter to John Taylor

If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be the measure of its republicanism, and I confess I know no other measure, it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights and their interests require.

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Lemay, ed., 1394.

James Madison

Federalist No. 39

If we resort for a criterion to the different principles on which different forms of government are established, we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 39 (241)

James Madison

1790 - letter to William Hunter

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.

George Washington

1789 - First Inaugural Address

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (462)

Founders Quote Database - Rights

The Virginia Bill of Rights

1776

That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

Declaration of Independence 1776

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (19)

John Adams

1772 - Rights of the Colonists

If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave.

John Adams

1776 - letter to Mercy Warren

Men must be ready, they must pride themselves and be happy to sacrifice their private pleasures, passions and interests, nay, their private friendships and dearest connections, when they stand in competition with the rights of society.

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (109); original Warren-Adams Letters, vol. 1 (221-222)

Alexander Hamilton

1775 - The Farmer Refuted

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

Reference: Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton, Frisch (21)

Alexander Hamilton

1775 - The Farmer Refuted

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.

Reference: Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton, Frisch (21)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 84

The truth is, after all the declamations we have heard, that the Constitution is itself, in every rational sense, and to every useful purpose, A BILL OF RIGHTS.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 84.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 84

I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?

Reference: The Federalist

Thomas Jefferson

1774 - Rights of British America

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh,

Thomas Jefferson

1774 - Rights of British America

A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 1:209.

Thomas Jefferson

1774 - Rights of British America

A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (121)

Thomas Jefferson

1791 - Letter to James Monroe

Natural rights [are] the objects for the protection of which society is formed and municipal laws established.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 9 (422)

Thomas Jefferson

1801 - First Inaugural Address

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (492-93)

Thomas Jefferson

1819 - letter to Samuel Adams Wells

The Declaration of Independence...[is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 15:200.

Thomas Jefferson

1824 - letter to John Cartwright

Nothing...is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 16:48.

Thomas Jefferson

1824 - Letter to John Cartwright

Nothing then is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1494)

Thomas Jefferson

1826 - letter to Roger C. Weightman

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride legitimately, by the grace of God.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1517)

James Madison

1788 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

The invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the Constituents.

Reference: The Constitution of Liberty, Hayek (475); original The Complete Madison, Padover (253)

James Madison

1792 - National Gazette Essay

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

Reference: Advice to my Country, Mattern, 21.

James Madison

1829 - Speech at the Virginia Convention

It is sufficiently obvious, that persons and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted. These rights cannot well be separated.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (824

James Wilson

1791 - Lectures on Law

Government, in my humble opinion, should be formed to secure and to enlarge the exercise of the natural rights of its members; and every government, which has not this in view, as its principal object, is not a government of the legitimate kind.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed. (592)

Founders Quote Database - Senate

John Adams

1787 - A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, vol 1

The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire and influence among the people that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain sense, in a house of representatives. The most illustrious of them must, therefore, be separated from the mass, and placed by themselves in a senate; this is, to all honest and useful intents, an ostracism.

Reference: respectfully quoted

Tench Coxe

1787 - An American Citizen, No.2

As our president bears no resemblance to a king so we shall see the Senate has no similitude to nobles. First, not being hereditary, their collective knowledge, wisdom, and virtue are not precarious. For by these qualities alone are they to obtain their offices, and they will have none of the peculiar qualities and vices of those men who possess power merely because their father held it before them.

Reference: Independent Gazeteer,

James Madison

Federalist No. 63

Such an institution may be sometimes necessary as a defense to the people against their own temporary errors and delusions.

Reference: Probably Madison, Federalist No. 63 (384)

James Madison

1787 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

In forming the Senate, the great anchor of the Government, the questions as they came within the first object turned mostly on the mode of appointment, and the duration of it.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (145)

George Mason

1788 - speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention

Those gentlemen, who will be elected senators, will fix themselves in the federal town, and become citizens of that town more than of your state.

Reference: The Debates of the Several State..., Elliot, vol. 3 (405)

Founders Quote Database - Separation of Powers

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

Good constitutions are formed upon a comparison of the liberty of the individual with the strength of government: If the tone of either be too high, the other will be weakened too much. It is the happiest possible mode of conciliating these objects, to institute one branch peculiarly endowed with sensibility, another with knowledge and firmness. Through the opposition and mutual control of these bodies, the government will reach, in its regular operations, the perfect balance between liberty and power.

Reference: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Syrett, ed., vol. 5 (81) [Sheehan (7:4)]

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 71

It is one thing to be subordinate to the laws, and another [for the Executive] to be dependent on the legislative body. The first comports with, the last violates, the fundamental principles of good government; and, whatever may be the forms of the Constitution, unites all power in the same hands.

Reference: The Federalist

John Jay

1788 - Federalist No. 64

The convention have done well, therefore, in so disposing of the power of making treaties, that although the President must, in forming them, act by the advice and consent of the Senate, yet he will be able to manage the business of intelligence in such a manner as prudence may suggest.

Reference: The Federalist

Thomas Jefferson

1797 - letter to James Madison

The principle of the Constitution is that of a separation of legislative, Executive and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, it is clearly the spirit of the Constitution, and it ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend of free government.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford, ed., vol. 7 (108)

Thomas Jefferson

1819 - letter to Samuel Adams Wells

My construction of the constitution is very different from that you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the meaning of the constitution in the cases submitted to its action; and especially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal.

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 1426

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to Judge William Johnson

 [T]o preserve the republican form and principles of our Constitution and cleave to the salutary distribution of powers which that [the Constitution] has established...are the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of foundering.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (272); original Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Je

James Madison

Federalist No. 51

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

Reference: The Federalist Papers

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 10

No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.

Reference: The Federalist

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 10

 [T]he great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachment of the others.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 10 (321-22)

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 48

No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty than that on which the objection is founded. The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 47.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 48

 [I]n the next place, to show that unless these departments be so far connected and blended as to give to each a constitutional control over the others, the degree of separation which the maxim requires, as essential to a free government, can never in practice be duly maintained.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 48.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 44

What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part [the necessary and proper clause] of the Constitution and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them...the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in a last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 44

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 48

An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.

Reference: The Federalist

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 58

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 48

James Madison

1789 - speech in the Congress of the United States

Nothing has yet been offered to invalidate the doctrine that the meaning of the Constitution may as well be ascertained by the Legislative as by the Judicial authority.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (365); original The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, vol. 1 (568)

James Madison

1789 - speech in the Congress of the United States

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.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (264); original The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, vol. 1 (520)

Founders Quote Database - Slavery

John Adams

1819 - letter to Evans

Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States....I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in...abhorrence.

Reference: Vindicating the Founders, West (5); original Selected Writings of John and John Quicny Adams, Koch and Peden (209)

Oliver Ellsworth

1787 - The Landholder

All good men wish the entire abolition of slavery, as soon as it can take place with safety to the public, and for the lasting good of the present wretched race of slaves. The only possible step that could be taken towards it by the convention was to fix a period after which they should not be imported.

Reference: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Farrand, ed., vol. 3 (165)

Benjamin Franklin

1789 - An Address to the Public

Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils.

Reference: Franklin: Collected Works, Lemay, ed. (1154)

Patrick Henry

1773 - letter to Robert Pleasants

I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we do is to improve it, if it happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery.

Reference: The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six, Henry Commager and Richard Morris, 402.

John Jay

1786 - letter to R. Lushington

It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (352)

Thomas Jefferson

1776 - deleted portion of a draft of the Declaration of Independence

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.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (22)

Thomas Jefferson

1809 - letter to Henri Gregoire

 [B]ut whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their re- establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family.

Reference: The Portable Thomas Jefferson, Peterson, ed., 517.

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - letter to Edward Coles

The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1344)

Thomas Jefferson

1821 - Autobiography

Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (44)

James Madison

1787 - speech at the Constitutional Convention

We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (93)

James Madison

1787 - Records of the Convention

 [The Convention] thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (93)

James Madison

1829 - speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention

It is due to justice; due to humanity; due to truth; to the sympathies of our nature; in fine, to our character as a people, both abroad and at home, that they should be considered, as much as possible, in the light of human beings, and not as mere property. As such, they are acted upon by our laws, and have an interest in our laws.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (825)

David Rice

1792 - speech to the constitutional convention of Kentucky

Slavery naturally tends to destroy all sense of justice and equity. It puffs up the mind with pride: teaches youth a habit of looking down upon their fellow creatures with contempt, esteeming them as dogs or devils, and imagining themselves beings of superior dignity and importance, to whom all are indebted. This banishes the idea, and unqualifies the mind for the practice of common justice.

Reference: American Political Writing during the Founding Era: 1760-1805, Hyneman and Lutz, ed., vol. 2 (868)

George Washington

1785 - letter to Marquis de Lafayette

The scheme, my dear Marqs. which you propose as a precedent, to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 157.

George Washington

1786 - letter to Robert Morris

 [T]here is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of [slavery].

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 157.

George Washington

1786 - letter to Marquis de Lafayette

 [Y]our late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view to emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country; but I despair of seeing it.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 159.

George Washington

1797 - letter to Lawrence Lewis

I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see a policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 158.

George Washington

1799 - letter to Robert Lewis

I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species...and to disperse the families I have an aversion.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 159.

James Wilson

1804 - The Natural Rights of Individuals

Slavery, or an absolute and unlimited power in the master over the life and fortune of the slave, is unauthorized by the common law.... The reasons which we sometimes see assigned for the origin and the continuance of slavery appear, when examined to the bottom, to be built upon a false foundation. In the enjoyment of their persons and of their property, the common law protects all.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (293); original The Works of the Honorable James Wilson, B. Wilson, ed., vol. 2 (488)

Founders Quote Database - Taxation

Anonymous slogan in response to British Tax Policy 1765

No Taxation without Representation!

Benjamin Franklin

1789 - letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

Reference: The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Begelow, ed., vol. 12 (161)

Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 21

It is a singular advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. They prescribe their own limit, which cannot be exceeded without defeating the end purposed - that is, an extension of the revenue.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No 21

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 12

It is evident from the state of the country, from the habits of the people, from the experience we have had on the point itself, that it is impracticable to raise any very considerable sums by direct taxation.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 21

If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds. This forms a complete barrier against any material oppression of the citizens by taxes of this class, and is itself a natural limitation of the power of imposing them.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 35

There is no part of the administration of government that requires extensive information and a thorough knowledge of the principles of political economy, so much as the business of taxation. The man who understands those principles best will be least likely to resort to oppressive expedients, or sacrifice any particular class of citizens to the procurement of revenue. It might be demonstrated that the most productive system of finance will always be the least burdensome.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1801 - Address to the Electors of the State of New York

As to Taxes, they are evidently inseparable from Government. It is impossible without them to pay the debts of the nation, to protect it from foreign danger, or to secure individuals from lawless violence and rapine.

Reference: Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton, Frisch, ed., 473.

Thomas Jefferson

1774 - Rights of British America

Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 1:210.

Thomas Jefferson

1784 - letter to James Madison

Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 4:15.

Thomas Jefferson

1784 - letter to James Madison

Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands.

Reference: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Julian P. Boyd, ed., 7:557.

Thomas Jefferson

1793 - letter to Gouverneur Morris

It must be observed that our revenues are raised almost wholly on imported goods.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, 9:198

Thomas Jefferson

1798 - letter to John Taylor

Excessive taxation...will carry reason and reflection to every man's door, and particularly in the hour of election.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 10:64.

Thomas Jefferson

1798 - letter to John Taylor

Excessive taxation will carry reason & reflection to every man's door, and particularly in the hour of election.

Reference: The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress, American Memory Collection

Thomas Jefferson

1813 - letter to John Wayles Eppes

Taxes should be continued by annual or biennial reeactments, because a constant hold, by the nation, of the strings of the public purse is a salutary restraint from which an honest government ought not wish, nor a corrupt one to be permitted, to be free.

Reference: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Library of Congress, American Memory Collection

Thomas Jefferson

1816 - letter to Joseph Milligan

To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

Reference: Vindicating the Founders, West (136); original Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Bergh, ed., vol. 14 (466)

Thomas Jefferson

1816 - letter to Joseph Milligan

For example. If the system be established on basis of Income, and his just proportion on that scale has been already drawn from every one, to step into the field of Consumption, and tax special articles in that, as broadcloth or homespun, wine or whiskey, a coach or a wagon, is doubly taxing the same article. For that portion of Income with which these articles are purchased, having already paid its tax as Income, to pay another taz on the thing it purchased, is paying twice for the same thing; it is an aggrievance on the citizens who use these articles in exoneration of those who do not, contrary to the most sacred of the duties of a government, to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 14 (465)

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to Lafayette

A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds. 15:491.

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 10

The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling which they overburden the inferior number is a shilling saved to their own pockets.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 10

James Madison

1792 - Essay on Property

A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.

Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (5156)

John Marshall

1819 - McCullough v. Maryland

An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.

Reference: Mccullough v. Maryland, 17 US 316 (1819)

Thomas Paine

1791 - Rights of Man

If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (549)

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

In a general sense, all contributions imposed by the government upon individuals for the service of the state, are called taxes, by whatever name they may be known, whether by the name of tribute, tythe, tallage, impost, duty, gabel, custom, subsidy, aid, supply, excise, or other name.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 337.

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.

Founders Quote Database - The People

Declaration of Independence

1776

Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 1 (29)

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

It already appears, that there must be in every society of men superiors and inferiors, because God has laid in the constitution and course of nature the foundations of the distinction.

Reference: The Works of John Adams, Charles Adams, ed., 427.

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 22

The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 22.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 71

It is a just observation that the people commonly intend the Public Good. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who should pretend they always reason right about the means of promoting it.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 71.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the New York Ratifying Convention

It was remarked yesterday that a numerous representation was necessary to obtain the confidence of the people. This is not generally true. The confidence of the people will easily be gained by a good administration. This is the true touchstone.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., vol.2 (22)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech in the New York ratifying convention

Here sir, the people govern.

Reference: The Debates of the Several State..., Elliot, vol. 2 (348)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - speech to the Ratifying Convention of New York

It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the people in every country desire sincerely its prosperity. But it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the discernment and stability necessary for systematic government. To deny that they are frequently led into the grossest of errors, by misinformation and passion, would be a flattery which their own good sense must despise.

Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 42.

John Jay

1787 - Federalist No. 2

To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection. As a nation we have made peace and war; as a nation we have vanquished our common enemies; as a nation we have formed alliances, and made treaties, and entered into various compacts and conventions with foreign states.

Reference: The Federalist

Thomas Jefferson

1781 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14

But of all the views of this law none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people the safe, as they are the ultimate, guardians of their own liberty. For this purpose the reading in the first stage, where they will receive their whole education, is proposed, as has been said, to be chiefly historical. History by apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 274.

Thomas Jefferson

1781 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIV

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

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (274)

Thomas Jefferson

1786 - Answers to de Meusnier Questions

In America, no other distinction between man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office exercising powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last, the poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and generally on a more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 17:8.

Thomas Jefferson

1813 - letter to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours

 [The people] are in truth the only legitimate proprietors of the soil and government.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 19:197.

Thomas Jefferson

1820 - letter to William Charles Jarvis

I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., vol. 15 (278)

Thomas Jefferson

1823 - letter to William Johnson

The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 15:451.

Thomas Jefferson

1824 - letter to John Cartwright

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves in all cases to which they think themselves competent, or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 16:45.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 42

But the mild voice of reason, pleading the cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too often drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate gain.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 42.

James Madison

1788 - Federalist No. 49

The passions, therefore, not the reason, of the public would sit in judgment. But it is the reason, alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government. The passions ought to be controlled and regulated by the government.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 49.

George Washington

1785 - letter to Marquis de Lafayette

Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (306)

George Washington

1789 - First Inaugural Address

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.

Reference: resp. quoted

James Wilson

1791 - Lectures on Law

In observations on this subject, we hear the legislature mentioned as the people's representatives. The distinction, intimated by concealed implication, through probably, not avowed upon reflection, is, that the executive and judicial powers are not connected with the people by a relation so strong or near or dear. But is high time that we should chastise our prejudices; and that we should look upon the different parts of government with a just and impartial eye.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed., vol. 1 (292-293); original Lectures on Law, Wilson,

James Wilson

1804 - Legislative Department

The pyramid of government-and a republican government may well receive that beautiful and solid form-should be raised to a dignified altitude: but its foundations must, of consequence, be broad, and strong, and deep. The authority, the interests, and the affections of the people at large are the only foundation, on which a superstructure proposed to be at once durable and magnificent, can be rationally erected.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed. (403)

Founders Quote Database - The Presidency

John Adams

1800 - letter to his wife Abigail; President Franklin D. Roosevelt had this lettered in gold in the marble over the fireplace in the S

I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on ALL that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof!

Reference: resp. quoted

Pierce Butler

1778 - letter to Weedon Butler

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.

Reference: The Records of the Federal Convention 0f 1781, Farrand, ed., vol. 3 (302)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 68

It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station [of President] filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virture.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 70

The ingredients which constitute energy in the Executive are, first, unity; secondly, duration; thirdly, an adequate provision for its support; fourthly, competent powers. ... The ingredients which constitute safety in the republican sense are, first, a due dependence on the people, secondly, a due responsibility.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 73, on the Veto Power

The injury which may possibly be done by defeating a few good laws, will be amply compensated by the advantage of preventing a number of bad ones.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 74

Of all the cares or concerns of government, the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand. The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength, forms a usual and essential part in the definition of the executive authority.

Reference: The Federalist

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 69

Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 69.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 68

This process of election affords a moral certainty that the office of President will seldom fall to the lot of any many who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 68.

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 69

A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 69.

Thomas Jefferson

1797 - letter to Elbridge Gerry

The second office of this government is honorable & easy, the first is but a splendid misery.

Reference: resp. quoted

Thomas Jefferson

1810 - letter to Caeser Rodney

In times of peace the people look most to their representatives; but in war, to the executive solely.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1218)

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

If, for instance, the president is required to do any act, he is not only authorized, but required, to decide for himself, whether, consistently with his constitutional duties, he can do the act.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 124.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

There is little need of commentary upon this clause. No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. It is a suitable pledge of his fidelity and responsibility to his country; and creates upon his conscience a deep sense of duty, by an appeal, at once in the presence of God and man, to the most sacred and solemn sanctions, which can operate upon the human mind.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 545.

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

On the other hand, the duty imposed upon him to take care, that the laws be faithfully executed, follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he will "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution." The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose; and without it, be the form of government whatever it may, it will be utterly worthless for offence, or defence; for the redress of grievances, or the protection of rights; for the happiness, or good order, or safety of the people.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 576.

George Washington

1789 - comment to General Henry Knox

For myself the delay [in assuming the office of the President] may be compared with a reprieve; for in confidence I assure you, with the world it would obtain little credit that my movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution: so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an Ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities and inclination which is necessary to manage the helm.

Reference: Forge of Union Anvil of Liberty, St John (85); original The Writings of George Washington..., Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 30 (268)

George Washington

1790 - letter to Catherine MacAulay

In our progress toward political happiness my station is new; and if I may use the expression, I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct wch. may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (537)

George Washington

1790 - letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham

All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity.

George Washington

1793 - letter to Edmund Pendleton

I give my signature to many Bills with which my Judgment is at variance.... From the Nature of the Constitution, I must approve all parts of a Bill, or reject it in total. To do the latter can only be Justified upon the clear and obvious grounds of propriety; and I never had such confidence in my own faculty of judging as to be over tenacious of the opinions I may have imbibed in doubtful cases.

Reference: The Writings of George Washinton, Fitzpatrick, ed., vol. 33 (96)

George Washington

1795 - letter to Gouverneur Morris

The executive branch of this government never has, nor will suffer, while I preside, any improper conduct of its officers to escape with impunity.

James Wilson

1791 - Lectures on Law

 [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.

Reference: The Works of James Wilson, McCloskey, ed., vol. 1 (319); original Lectures on Law, Wilson,

Founders Quote Database - The Press

Fisher Ames

1807 - Review of the Pamphlet on the State of the British Constituiton

We are, heart and soul, friends to the freedom of the press. It is however, the prostituted companion of liberty, and somehow or other, we know not how, its efficient auxiliary. It follows the substance like its shade; but while a man walks erect, he may observe that his shadow is almost always in the dirt. It corrupts, it deceives, it inflames. It strips virtue of her honors, and lends to faction its wildfire and its poisoned arms, and in the end is its own enemy and the usurper's ally, It would be easy to enlarge on its evils. They are in England, they are here, they are everywhere. It is a precious pest, and a necessary mischief, and there would be no liberty without it.

Reference: Works of Fisher Ames, W. B. Allen, ed., vol. 1 (183-184)

Benjamin Franklin

1722 - writing as Silence Dogood, No. 8

Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.

Reference: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Labaree, ed., vol. 1 (27)

Benjamin Franklin

1767 - Reply to Coffee House Orators

To the haranguers of the populace among the ancients, succeed among the moderns your writers of political pamphlets and news-papers, and your coffee-house talkers.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 590.

Benjamin Franklin

1789 - An Account of the Supremest Court of Judicature in Pennsylvania, viz. The Court of the Press

If by the liberty of the press were understood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please: But if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it, whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the law and shall chearfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others for the privilege of not being abused myself.

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 1152.

Thomas Jefferson

1792 - letter to George Washington

No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.

Thomas Jefferson

1802 - letter to Thaddeus Kosciusko

Newspapers...serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.

Thomas Jefferson

1805 - Second Inaugural Address

During the course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been levelled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap its safety.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson

1816 - letter to Charles Yancey

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

James Madison

1798 - Virginia Resolutions

The right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon . . . has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right.

Reference: Documents of American History, Commager, vol. 1 (182)

James Madison

1798 - Report on the Virginia Resolutions

To the press alone, checkered 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.

Reference: American Memory collection of the Library of Congress

James Madison

1798 - Virginia Resolutions

The right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon . . . has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right.

Reference: Virginia Resolutions, 1798

Founders Quote Database - Truth

John Adams

1770 - in Defense of the British Soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

Reference: Legal Papers of John Adams, Wroth and Zobel, eds., vol. 3 (269) [Rex v. Wemms]

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 31

In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 31

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 20

Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 20 (138)

Patrick Henry

1775 - speech in the Virginia Convention

It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth - and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

Reference: resp. quoted

Thomas Jefferson

1781 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors?

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (286)

Thomas Jefferson

1822 - letter to James Smith

Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.

Thomas Paine

1791 - Rights of Man

Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (548)

George Washington

1795 - letter to Edmund Randolph

There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.

Founders Quote Database - Tyranny

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 1

Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 1 (35)

Alexander Hamilton

1788 - Federalist No. 33

If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.

Reference: The Federalist

Thomas Jefferson

1800 - letter to Benjamin Rush

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1082)

Thomas Jefferson

1814 - letter to Edward Coles

I had always hoped that the younger generation receiving their early impressions after the flame of liberty had been kindled in every breast...would have sympathized with oppression wherever found, and proved their love of liberty beyond their own share of it.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1344-45)

Thomas Paine

1776 - American Crisis, No. 1

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (91)

Joseph Warren

1775 - American account of the Battle of Lexington

Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry we will not tamely submit - appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free....

Reference: Documents of American History, Commager, ed., vol. 1 (99)

Mercy Warren

1805 - History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution

It is necessary for every American, with becoming energy to endeavor to stop the dissemination of principles evidently destructive of the cause for which they have bled. It must be the combined virtue of the rulers and of the people to do this, and to rescue and save their civil and religious rights from the outstretched arm of tyranny, which may appear under any mode or form of government.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 376

Founders Quote Database - Virtue

John Adams

1776 - letter to Mercy Warren

Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honour, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superiour to all private passions.

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (109); original Warren-Adams Letters, vol. 1 (221-222)

John Adams

1776 - letter to Zabdiel Adams

The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a greater Measure than they have it now, they may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (371)

John Adams

1776 - Thoughts on Government

We ought to consider what is the end of government before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man....All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.

Reference: Papers of John Adams, Butterfield, ed., vol. 4 (86)

Samuel Adams

1775 - letter to James Warren

Since private and publick Vices, are in Reality, though not always apparently, so nearly connected, of how much Importance, how necessary is it, that the utmost Pains be taken by the Publick, to have the Principles of Virtue early inculcated on the Minds even of children, and the moral Sense kept alive, and that the wise institutions of our Ancestors for these great Purposes be encouraged by the Government. For no people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 261.

Samuel Adams

1779 - letter to James Warren

If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great Security.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (217)

Samuel Adams

1779 - letter to James Warren

A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.

Reference: The Writings of Samuel Adams, Cushing, ed., vol. 4 (124)

Benjamin Franklin

1728 - The Busy-body, No. 3

I pronounce it as certain that there was never yet a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

Reference: The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Bigelow, ed., vol. 1 (350)

Benjamin Franklin

1768 - letter to John Alleyne

Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy.

Reference: The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Sparks, ed., vol. 7 (415)

Thomas Jefferson

1781 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17

Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen, people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (290)

Thomas Jefferson

1785 - letter to Peter Carr

Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you... From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (814-815)

Thomas Jefferson

1788 - letter to Edward Rutledge

My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 7:81.

Thomas Jefferson

1808 - letter to Richard M. Johnson

I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles.

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 12:9.

Richard Henry Lee

1786 - letter to Colonel Martin Pickett

It is certainly true that a popular government cannot flourish without virtue in the people.

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (332); original The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, Ballagh, ed., vol. 2 (411)

James Madison

1788 - speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention

Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks-no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.

Reference: The True Republican, French, ed. (28-29)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (44)

Joseph Story

1833 - Commentaries on the Constitution

Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 719.

George Washington

1789 - First Inaugural Address

There exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.

Reference: Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the U.S.

George Washington

1789 - First Inaugural Address

 [T]he propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 170.

George Washington

1789 - First Inaugural Address

 [T]here exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (462)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (522)

George Washington

1796 - Farewell Address

`Tis substantially true, that 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.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (521)

Noah Webster

1788 - On the Education of Youth in America

The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (266)

Founders Quote Database - War for Independence

John Adams

1776 - letter to William Cushing

Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (307); original The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 9 (391)

John Adams

1818 - letter to H. Niles

But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations...This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

Reference: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Bernard Bailyn (160)

Samuel Adams

1775 - to John Hancock at the Battle of Lexington, Massachusetts

What a glorious morning this is!

Reference: American Statesman: Samual Adams, Hosmer (297)

Samuel Adams

1776 - letter to James Warren

Our unalterable resolution would be to be free. They have attempted to subdue us by force, but God be praised! in vain. Their arts may be more dangerous then their arms. Let us then renounce all treaty with them upon any score but that of total separation, and under God trust our cause to our swords.

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (294); original Warren-Adams Letters, vol. 1 (224-225)

Colonel John Brooks

1778 - letter to a friend

Under all those disadvantages no men ever show more spirit or prudence than ours. In my opinion nothing but virtue has kept our army together through this campaign.

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (649); original Massachusets Histrocal Society Procedings, Brooks, vol. 13 (243-

Alexander Hamilton

1787 - Federalist No. 1

It seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.

Reference: Hamilton, Federalist No. 1.

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 14

They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society. They reared the fabrics of governments which have no model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a great Confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate.

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 14.

James Madison

1787 - Federalist No. 14

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.

Reference: The Federalist

John Page

1776 - letter to Thomas Jefferson

We know the Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the Strong. Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this Storm?

Reference: Angel in the Whirlwind, Bobrick (cover page)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.

Reference: Paine: Collected Writings, Foner ed., Library of America (21)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

Now is the seedtime of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now, will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound would enlarge with the tree, and posterity read in it full grown characters.

Reference: Paine: Collected Writings, Foner ed., Library of America (21)

Thomas Paine

1776 - Common Sense

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library of America (52)

Thomas Paine

1777 - The Crisis, no 4

We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.

Reference: resp. quoted

Thomas Paine

1782 - On Financing the War

I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.

Reference: Paine Writings, Foner, ed., 297.

Thomas Paine

1783 - The American Crisis, No. 13

The times that tried men's souls are over-and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished.

Reference: The Spirit of `Seventy-Six, Commager and Morris (109); original Writings of Pain, Conway, ed., vol. 1 (370-375)

Captain John Parker

1775 - commander of the militiamen at Lexington, Massachusetts, on siting British Troops (attributed)

Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here.

Reference: The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six, Commanger and Morris (70)

Benjamin Rush

1786 - letter to Price

The American war is over; but this far from being the case with the American revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the drama is closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms of government, and to prepare the principles, morals, and manners of our citizens for these forms of government after they are established and brought to perfection.

Reference: Benjamin Rush: Revolutionary Gadfly, Hawke (341); original Letters of Benjamin Rush, Butterfield, ed.

George Washington

1776 - General Orders

 [T]he hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty - that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 86.

George Washington

1783 - Circular to the States

It is yet to be decided whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse: a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved.

Reference: Vindicating the Founders, West, 15.

George Washington

1783 - Address to Congress on Resigning his Commission

Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (273)

George Washington

1783 - General Orders

Happy, thrice happy shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed any thing, who have performed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabrick of Freedom and Empire on the broad basis of Independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of humane nature and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.

Reference: Washington's Maxims, 51.

George Washington

1783 - Circular to the States

The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epocha when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period.

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (379)

Founders Quote Database - Work

Benjamin Franklin

1742 - Poor Richard's Almanack

A Man may, if he know not how to save, keep his Nose to the Grindstone, and die not wirth a Groat at last.

Reference: Poor Richard: The Almanacks for the Years, 1733-1758, intro by Van Wyck Brooks (94)

Benjamin Franklin

1742 - Poor Richards Almanack

Have you something to do to-morrow; do it to-day.

Reference: Poor Richard: The Almanacks, for the Years, 1733-1758, Intro by Van Wyck Brooks (94)

Benjamin Franklin

1757 - Poor Richard's Almanack

Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow.

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, ed., Library of America (1290)

Alexander Hamilton

1791 - Report on Manufactures

To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted.

Reference: The Reports of Alexander Hamilton, Cooke, ed. (133)

Thomas Jefferson

1795 - letter to Jean Nicolas Démeunier

In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail-maker.

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1028)