Quotes from the Founding Fathers of the US Declaration of Indepedence and Constitution

A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
-- Rights of British America, 1774

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.

-- letter to Thomas Ritchie, December 25, 1820

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.
-- letter to John Melish, January 13, 1813

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.

-- letter to a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, Connecticut, January 1, 1802

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
-- Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 19, 1787

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.
-- Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, February 15, 1791

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.
-- letter to William Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
-- letter to William Ludlow, September 6, 1824

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
-- letter to Archibald Stewart, Dec 23, 1791

If a nation expects to be ignorant - and free - in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
-- letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816

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

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."
-- letter to John Wayles Eppes, June 24, 1813

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.
-- Opinion on National Bank, 1791

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?
-- Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17, 1781

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.
-- letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823

Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the spot of every wind. With such persons, gullability, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.
-- letter to James Smith, December 8, 1822

Natural rights [are] the objects for the protection of which society is formed and municipal laws established.
-- letter to James Monroe, 1791

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms
-- Draft Constitution for the State of Virginia, June, 1776

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.
-- letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823

One single object... [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.
-- letter to Edward Livingston, March 25, 1825

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.
-- First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

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.
-- letter to John Wayles Eppes, June 24, 1813

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.
-- letter to John Cartwright, 1824

The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution 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.
-- letter to Charles Hammond, Aug 18, 1821

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.
-- Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17, 1782

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
-- letter to Edward Carrington, May 27, 1788

The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
-- letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
-- letter to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787

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.
-- letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816

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.
-- Notes on the state of Virginia, 1782

[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.
-- First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

[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.
-- letter to Judge William Johnson, June 12, 1823

'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.
-- Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent Alliances, with any portion of the foreign world.
-- Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
-- Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

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.
-- letter to the General Committee of the United Baptist Churches in Virginia, May, 1789

I hope, some day or another, we shall become a storehouse and granary for the world.
-- letter to Marquis de Lafayette, June 19, 1788

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.
-- letter to Patrick Henry, October 9, 1775

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.
-- draft of First Inaugural Address, April 1789

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.
-- Message to the House of Representatives, December 3, 1793

The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all.
-- Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

The executive branch of this government never has, nor will suffer, while I preside, any improper conduct of its officers to escape with impunity.
-- letter to Gouverneur Morris, December 22, 1795

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.
-- First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

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.
-- Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
-- First Annual Message, January 8, 1790

We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals.
-- letter to John Jay, August 15, 1786

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.
-- address to the New York Legislature, June 26, 1775

[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.
-- November 15, 1794

A Spoonful of Honey will catch more Flies than a Gallon of Vinegar.
-- Poor Richard's Almanack, 1748

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise
-- Advice to a Young Tradesman, 1748

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
-- Poor Richards Almanack, 1749

He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.
-- from his writings, 1758

Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.
-- Poor Richard's Almanack, 1735

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.
-- Emblematical Representations, Circa 1774

How many observe Christ's birth-day! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments.
-- Poor Richard's Almanack, 1743

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 traveled 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
-- On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1766

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.
-- Political Observations

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
-- Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738

No nation was ever ruined by trade, even seemingly the most disadvantageous.
-- Principles of Trade, 1774

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.
-- letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, November 13, 1789

Remember, that Time is Money.
-- Advice to a Young Tradesman, 1748

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.
-- Those Who Would Remove to America, February, 1784

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.
-- Emblematical Representations, Circa 1774

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.
-- letter to George Whatley, May 23, 1785

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-- Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately
-- at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Where liberty dwells, there is my country.
-- letter to Benjamin Vaughn, March 14, 1783

Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
-- Poor Richard's Almanack, 1746

Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.
-- writing as Silence Dogood, No. 8, July 9, 1722

Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow.
-- Poor Richard's Almanack, 1757

[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.
-- letter to William Straham, August 19, 1784

[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.
-- letter to Samuel Cooper, May 1, 1777

A fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to abuse it, when acquired.
-- The Farmer Refuted, February 23, 1775

A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects committed 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.
-- Federalist No. 31, January 1, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 78, 1788

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.
-- Report on Public Credit, January 9, 1790

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.
-- speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June, 1788

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.
-- Address to the Electors of the State of New York, March, 1801

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?
-- Federalist No. 84, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 55, February 15, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 62, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 1, October 27, 1787

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.
-- Federalist No. 63, 1788

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.
-- The Farmer Refuted, February 23, 1775

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.
-- speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 73, on the Veto Power, March 21, 1788

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!
-- Tully, No. 3, August 28, 1794

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.
-- speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788

[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.
-- letter to James Bayard, April, 1802

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.
-- in Defense of the British Soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre, December 4, 1770

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.
-- Thoughts on Government, 1776

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.
-- Thoughts on Government, 1776

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.
-- letter to Abigail Adams, 1780

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.
-- Rights of the Colonists, 1772

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
-- letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814

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.
-- Thoughts on Government, 1776

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.
-- A Defense of the American Constitutions, 1787

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
-- A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, vol 1, 1787

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.
-- Thoughts on Government, 1776

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.
-- A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States, 1787-1788

[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.
-- An Essay on Man's Lust for Power, August 29, 1763

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.
-- Common Sense, 1776

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.
-- Dissertation on First Principles of Government, December 23, 1791

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.
-- On Financing the War, 1782

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.
-- Rights of Man, 1791

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?
-- The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

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
-- Common Sense, 1776

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.
-- The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

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.
-- Common Sense, 1776

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
-- The American Crisis, No. 4, September 11, 1777

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
-- The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
-- The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
-- Common Sense, 1776

A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.
-- Essay on Property, March 29, 1792

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.
-- speech at the Constitutional Convention, July 11, 1787

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?
-- Federalist No. 51, February 8, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 48, February 1, 1788

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.
-- National Gazette Essay, March 27, 1792

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.
-- Federalist No. 48, February 1, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 42, January 22, 1788

Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.
-- Federalist No. 10, November 23, 1787

Equal laws protecting equal rights - the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.
-- letter to Jacob de la Motta, August 1820

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.
-- (likely), Federalist No. 62, 1788

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.
-- Essay on Property, March 29, 1792

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
-- letter to Henry Lee, June 25, 1824

I own myself the friend to a very free system of commerce, and hold it as a truth, that commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive and impolitic - it is also a truth, that if industry and labour are left to take their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are the most productive, and this in a more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the most enlightened legislature could point out.
-- speech to the Congress, April 9, 1789

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.
-- letter to Edmund Pendleton, January 21, 1792

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.
-- Federalist No. 51, February 8, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 39, January 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 14, November 30, 1787

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.
-- to an unidentified correspondent, 1833

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.
-- Speech at the Virginia Convention, December 2, 1829

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.
-- Federalist No. 48, February 1, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 10, November 23, 1787

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprize, every expanded prospect.
-- letter to William Bradford, April 1, 1774

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
-- proposed amendment to the Constitution, given in a speech in the House of Representatives, 1789

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.
-- Federalist No. 10, November 23, 1787

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
-- speech in the Virginia constitutional convention, Dec 2, 1829

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.
-- letter to Thomas Jefferson, October 17, 1788

The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.
-- Federalist No. 48, February 1, 1788

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.
-- Federalist No. 45, January 26, 1788

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.
-- speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788

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....
-- letter to James Monroe, October 5, 1786

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
-- essay in the National Gazette, March 27, 1792

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.
-- letter to Thomas Jefferson, October 17, 1788

[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.
-- Federalist No. 10, November 23, 1787

[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.
-- speech in the House of Representatives, January 10, 1794

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."
-- Anonymous, from Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787

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.
-- Noah Webster, An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787

Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here.
-- Captain John Parker, commander of the militiamen at Lexington, Massachusetts, on siting British Troops (attributed), April 19, 1775

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.
-- Patrick Henry, on James Madison, November 12, 1790

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.
-- James Wilson, Lectures on Law, 1791

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.
-- Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778

I have not yet begun to fight!
-- John Paul Jones, response to enemy demand to surrender, September 23, 1779

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
-- Nathan Hale, before being hanged by the British, September 22, 1776

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!
-- Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775

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 earthly 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.
-- Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, June 5, 1788

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 siren, 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.
-- Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775

It should therefore be difficult in a republic to declare war; but not to make peace.
-- Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

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.
-- Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishment, quoted by Thomas Jefferson in Commonplace Book, 1774-1776

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.
-- John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men, 1776

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?
-- Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778

One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle.
-- James Otis, On the Writs of Assistance, 1761

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.
-- Recommended Bill of Rights from the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 27, 1778

The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.
-- James Wilson, Of the Study of Law in the United States, Circa 1790

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.
-- Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

There is a tradition that, on his return from France, Jefferson called Washington to account at the breadfast-table for having agreed to a second chamber. "Why," asked Washington, "did you pour that coffee into your saucer?" "To cool it," quoth Jefferson. "Even so," said Washington, "we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it."
-- Anonymous, from Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787

There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!
-- John Hancock, upon signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

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.
-- James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, Circa 1790

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.
-- Fisher Ames, speech in the United States House of Representatives, April 8, 1789

Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? It is feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American...[T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.
-- A Pennsylvanian, The Pennsylvania Gazette, February 20, 1788

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.
-- Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

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.
-- James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, Circa 1790

[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.
-- Samuel Adams, essay in The Public Advertiser, Circa 1749

[T]he people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them.
-- Zacharia Johnson, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 25, 1778

[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.
-- George Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778

[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.
-- Benjamin Rush, letter to David Ramsay, Circa April, 1788

[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

Did you know that John Hancock was an infamous smuggler with a British bounty on his head?

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This seems quite apropos for the times: In the 1796 treaty with Tripoli, Article 11, as signed by George Washington:

As the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion, it has, in itself, no character of enmity against the Laws, Religion or Tranquility of Musselmen Muslims]; and as the said United States have never entered into any way or act of hostility against any Mohametan nation, it is declared by the parties
that no pretext arising from religious opinion hall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

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'Necessity' is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. -William Pitt

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. -- Thomas Jefferson

A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. - ABRAHAM LINCOLN

A wise and frugal government, which 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, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. -- Thomas Jefferson

By liberty, was meant protection against the tyranny of the political rulers. The aim, therefore, of patriots was to set limits to the power which the ruler should be suffered to exercise over the community; and this limitation was what they meant by liberty. - John Stuart Mill

Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law. -- Thomas Jefferson

Despotism or unlimited sovereignty is the same in a majority of a popular assembly, an aristocratical council, an oligarchical junta, and a single emperor. -- John Quincy Adams

Every man wishes to pursue his occupation and to enjoy the fruits of his labours and the produce of his property in peace and safety, and with the least possible expense. When these things are accomplished, all the objects for which government ought to be established are answered. -- Thomas Jefferson

Abraham Lincoln

A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. -

Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence, is just another encouragement to industry and enterprise.

Someone once asked Abraham Lincoln how many legs a dog has, if you count the tail as a leg. "Four" was Lincoln's reply. "The fact that you call a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

Those who deny freedom for others deserve it not for themselves.

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure... If today he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, "I see no probability of the British invading us," but he will say to you, "Be silent; I see it, if you don't."